


A Taboo Rendezvous

by BriMarie



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Confused Ricky Bowen (HSMTMTS), Denial of Feelings, Ej is a himbo, Enemies With Benefits, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Forbidden Love, Jealousy, Lemon, Lust, Mild S&M, Mutual Pining, Passionate, Pining, Porn with Feelings, Ricky Bowen Loves Nini Salazar-Roberts, S&M, Secretary - Freeform, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Smut, Spanking, Strangers to Lovers, Taboo, Unrealized Feelings, high school musical the musical the series - Freeform, hsmtmts, inspired by secretary, it's odd, no it's not based off 50 shades but I get why you'd assume, rini - Freeform, scandalous, they're kinda enemies but not really, they're so into each other but don't realize it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:41:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29028129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriMarie/pseuds/BriMarie
Summary: Nini is the secretary of Ricky Bowen's record label. He makes an order, she makes sure it's carried out. They're a great match in every way...well almost every way. He wasn't exactly the nicest, and she was the only one who could tolerate him.Nini confuses Ricky in ways he doesn't understand.Ricky drives her wild to no end.And the line between admiration and disdain seems to slowly become thinner each day.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 69
Kudos: 69





	1. Yes, Mr. Bowen?

**Author's Note:**

> ~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~

To say Nini was nervous was an understatement.

She had been running as fast as she could in her black pumps, eyeing her wrist watch every few seconds. Today could be either the start of a new life for her or a total bust. Only time could tell.

Last week, Nini had applied for a job at a major firm called Bowen's Boombox, which she only wishes she could remember what the company did. She had applied for so many jobs in the Salt Lake City region that she had forgotten which one did what.

She had recently moved from a small town in the middle of Utah that close to no one has ever heard of. She had been working as a florist in a quiet little town of less than 1,000 people. Though the people were kind and her manager tried their best to meet her financial expectations, it wasn't paying the bills.

And if she were being honest, the town was boring and had nothing to offer her. So she had called up her childhood friend Kourtney and asked if she could stay in her two bedroom apartment with her since she knew there was a vacancy.

Of course Kourtney had said yes. She had been bugging Nini for two years to move to Salt Lake so she can show her true colors and leave that rusty old town of theirs. Nini wasn't a fan of change, but for some reason she felt it was time for a new setting.

She had packed her things in less than a week and drove an hour and a half to her capital city to start her new life without a second thought. But that was the problem.

She occasionally had an issue with making decisions without thinking it through such as not checking for job offers before uprooting herself to a whole different county.

The second she had realized that mistake, she got on her laptop and began searching for jobs within the city. One of the perks of urban areas is that there are always jobs open, but she found that most of the jobs weren't well suited for her. That is until she found a job offer to be a secretary for some major corporation.

If she were being honest, she took one look at the hefty paycheck and the employee benefits and didn't think twice to apply. She'd never seen that many zeros at the end of a number in her life for any job in her hometown.

Knowing that she wasn't the only one who had definitely been thinking the same thing as her, she had to make sure she made a great first impression.

She did a vague scan over the company as she ran to the ginormous transparent front doors to the building. She quickly walked up to the front desk. The ginger woman gave her a large and friendly grin.

"Hi, welcome to Bowen's Boombox. I'm Ashlyn; how may I help you?"

"I'm Nina Salazar-Roberts. I'm here for my interview with Mr. Bowen at 9:30. Can you direct me to his office please?"

The ginger woman scrunches her brows as she types something on her computer. Nini did not like the anxious feeling she got from this woman's unsure expression.

"You said 9:30?"

Nini nodded. "Yes, I'm sure of it."

"I'm sorry, but my computer says he's only scheduled for a 9:15 interview."

Nini felt her heart drop. No, this can't be happening right now. "Are you sure? Surely there's some mistake! I called the other day and checked like a dozen times asking if my time was right!"

Ashlyn gave her a sympathetic look. "I don't know what to say. You can check the computer screen if you'd like." The ginger woman turns her monitor to her to prove she isn't lying, making Nini want to rip her hair out.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

Ashlyn awkwardly bites the inside of her cheek at her swearing. "You know, I think if you head up there now, you might still have a shot."

"Really?"

Ashlyn nods. "Yeah, I do. Not many people have really applied for this job, so maybe he's willing to cut you some slack. Who knows? Maybe you'll luck out."

Nini was beginning to feel a little hope despite the uncertainty in the woman's voice. "What floor is he on?"

"The 20th floor, which is the top floor. There's only one office up there besides the secretary's; you can't miss it."

Nini smiled. "Thank you!" She began sprinting to the elevator and barely heard the ginger wish her good luck, and she said something else under her breath Nini couldn't hear as she ran away.

She had smashed the elevator buttons with all her willpower as if that would magically make it go faster. She had been tapping her foot and praying in Tagalog on the ride up, hoping this interview would go well. She had already been turned down four times this week, and she doesn't think she can handle another rejection at the moment. (And she doesn't think her liver could handle another glass of wine).

The elevator doors ding as they slide open, revealing a humongous crimson door at the end of the hall and a smaller one next to it. She had to assume that must've been his office. She slowly walked up to the doors and paused before knocking. She took a deep breath and straightened out her posture. This was it.

As she raises her fist to knock on the door, it swings open revealing who she must assume is going to be her interviewer. She finds herself analyzing him.

He towered over her by many inches. He had curly light brown hair and honey eyes, an extremely defined jawline that could cut glass, and was sharply dressed from head to toe. All in all, he was an immensely handsome guy with a very intense gaze that intimidated her to no ends.

When she realized she had just been staring at him like an idiot, she cleared her throat. "Uh hi, My name is Nina Salazar-Roberts. I'm here for-"

He holds up his hand to stop her. "Your interview. Yes, I know. Ashlyn told me you were on your way up here. Follow me." He doesn't sound exactly pleased with her, which is fair considering she is 15 minutes late. So much for good first impressions.

She follows behind him, closing the door before finding her way to the seat across from him. She takes notice of how luxurious and colossal his office was. She's never seen an office the size of her own apartment with fully furnished areas and its own coffee machine and mini bar. She could almost smell his success in the air.

She slightly slips a bit on her way down into the chair, hoping he didn't notice her clumsiness. He sits in his chair with a straight face as he eyes her down as if he were some robot scanning her for a background check.

She nervously plays with the end of her pencil skirt as she waits for him to speak. When he finally does move, she jumps a bit.

"Why should I hire you Ms. Salazar-Roberts?"

She has never been asked that question first in an interview since it usually comes towards the end. "Well, I'm an excellent assistant. I was an assistant to my manager at the flower shop I worked in for-"

"No, don't give me that crap about how much of a great employee you were at your former mundane 9-5 job. That's a boring and rehearsed answer that I've heard one too many times before. Why are you sitting across my desk asking me to employ you?"

Nini didn't know what to say to such a straightforward question. She figured she may as well just tell the truth. I mean, it's what he wanted, right?

She sighs and relaxes more. "I desperately need a job, and your company had quite the impressive salary if I'm being completely honest with you sir."

He stared at her with that same blank face, and she could almost see the gears turning in his head.

"Why were you late if you claim to be so desperate for this job?"

"I guess traffic..."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?"

"Traffic is another lame excuse. Why were you late for this interview?"

"Fine, I was misinformed."

"What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word manager?"

Nini was so thrown off but answered him. "Bossy."

"Winter or summer?"

"Summer by far."

"How do you feel about answering phone calls?"

"Not my style, but I'll suck it up if I have to."

"Morning or night?"

"Both, they each have their flaws and benefits."

"One last question." He stalls for a moment as he leans back in his chair. "How well do you think you can work under pressure even when things don't go as you may have planned?"

Nini, suddenly feeling a little unprofessional, smirks. "I'd say pretty well considering I haven't cracked to your insane questions yet." She catches how cocky she sounds after she's already said it and stills.

She waits for him to react, but his face remains static. He spins around in his seat, gets up, and steadily walks to his window to gaze at the town below him. He stays silent for a full minute before finally letting out a loud sigh.

"You're spunky and a little on edge, you know that?"

She didn't know what to think of that. Judging by his face, it wasn't a compliment. Great, she never should've even bothered applying to this stupid job that she never had a chance of getting anyways. Well, if she's not gonna get the spot, she may as well go out with a bang.

"I can be."

He still continued to face the window. "You might cause me a little trouble."

"Not the first I've heard that before."

Her statement causes him to turn around. "And you clearly have no problem with candor despite me being the person that decides whether or not you work here or not."

Nini somehow felt challenged by his stare and felt her jaw clench. "It seems you've read me like a book Mr. Bowen."

He shrugs. "Seems so." He averts his gaze back to the window without another word.

When he doesn't reply for another two minutes, Nini believes that this was his own little way of ending their conversation. "Are we done here Mr. Bowen?"

He nods. "I believe we are."

She sighs as she grabs her purse and stands up from her spot. "Well it was nice meeting you." She began making her way to the door.

"Oh and Ms. Salazar-Roberts?"

She looks over her shoulder, a little surprised he had even said anything to her. "Yes?"

He pulls out a pair of keys from his pocket. "I expect you here at 8:00 am sharp Monday-Friday starting tomorrow. I'll email you all the other smaller details. Don't show up late, or you'll be unemployed, understand?"

She almost forgot how to breathe. She finally nodded when she comprehended what he said.

"Good. Here are my office keys and yours. I'm sure you saw a small office before getting to mine. That's where you'll be." He tossed her the keys, and she by some miracle caught them. "See you bright and early Ms. Salazar-Roberts."

She looks at him dumbfounded. "Thank you, yes of course I'll be on time. I won't disappoint you."

He rolled his eyes at her last statement. "I just complimented you on your candor. Don't make me a liar."

Nini wasn't sure what to respond, so she just mouthed a sorry before waving awkwardly as she closed the door behind her. When she got in the elevator, she let herself replay the events of the last 15 minutes.

That was absolutely the most absurd interview she's ever had. She has no idea how to feel about this Ricky Bowen dude except the fact that he's gonna be an interesting boss.

She aimlessly walked by the front desk of the main lobby. The same ginger receptionist had looked up at her with a hopeful expression.

"How'd it go?"

Nini gave her a confused look that the receptionist had grown far too used to. "I...got the job." Nini didn't quite believe it herself even though she said it aloud. Everything felt unreal.

Ashlyn smiled from ear to ear and clapped. "How exciting! I had a feeling you'd be the right fit the second you walked through the door. You just seemed like you had a strong enough personality to handle...well, him."

Nini raises a brow. "How so?"

"He's not exactly like most bosses as you probably already figured out on your own. He's not known for going easy on people, yet here you are still standing tall with no tears rolling down your eyes. You're perfect!"

That did _not_ make her feel better. "Oh uh, thank you?"

"See you tomorrow, and good luck! You'll need it." The receptionist sounded more serious than perky in the last line, which didn't ease Nini's nerves.

When she made her way to her car, she allowed herself to let out a sigh of relief.

Did she just join a colt?

***

She wakes up at 6:00 am just to make sure she is up and ready for work, not wanting to get fired on her first day. (She also woke up early to see what the company even did. It apparently was a record label and explains all the vinyl's on the walls and the company name). If he has a weird hiring tactic, she can't even imagine what he'd do to fire her. And she doesn't ever want to know. 

She gets an email notification from him. She opened it and almost spit out her coffee when she saw how long the list was. She skimmed through the list and couldn't believe some of the shit she had to do. Bring a cup of black coffee every morning for him, file all his cabinets and her own, pick up his dry cleaning, answer all phone calls and his own emails when necessary, and so much more.

Surely, he had to be joking. Knowing him, he was being as serious as a heart attack. She groaned as she left her apartment, mentally preparing herself for what was sure to be a stressful day. When she entered the building, she was greeted by Ashlyn with the same perky smile she had yesterday.

"Oo you're here early!"

Nini rested a large box full of some of the objects he requested. "Yeah well I'd hate to make the same mistake twice. Also, does he always ask for such a ridiculous amount of shit every morning? Because I certainly can't see how it's my responsibility to pick up some of his dry cleaning. I'm not his maid or mother."

Ashlyn nodded and chuckled under her breath. "Yeah, you gotta expect some weird requests from him. He's really unpredictable; it's just who he is. Most people can't stomach it, but you seem like you're already on a good start."

Nini sighed. That actually made her feel a little better. "I hope you're right." She checks her wrist watch and realizes he should be arriving any second now. "Gotta go. Catch you later."

She waddles to the elevator fully ready for whatever he was going to throw at her today. She was not ready to bump (quite literally) into her boss the second she got out of the elevator. She almost dropped her box full of both his and her things.

She was shocked to see him standing there with the same blank expression. She's not sure if he even knows how to show emotion. She was about to speak, but he beat her to it.

"It's nice to see you finally decided to show up Ms. Salazar-Roberts."

She scrunched her brows and felt a wave of fear come over her. She glances at her phone to make sure she didn't somehow mess up the time again. When she noticed it was only 7:30, she looked at him like he'd grown two heads.

"But it's only-"

He holds up a hand to silence her. "Go get settled in, and did you complete everything on the list I emailed you?"

She nods and holds up the box in her hands towards him. He grabs the coffee that's in her hand and takes a sip. He grimaces at the taste. "It's cold. Maybe if you were here on time it'd be warm."

She scoffs. "But sir it has steam coming out of it, and I think it burned my hand a bit."

"It's lukewarm at best, but it'll due for now. When you're settled in, start answering my emails. I don't have time to humor them. I have a meeting to get to."

And on that note he walked to the elevator, giving her a stare that seemed almost challenging as the doors shut. She swore she saw a little smirk growing on his face. She waited until he was out of earshot before letting out an obnoxious groan.

"Good god, that guy's an asshole!"

Despite feeling a little attacked, she did as much as she could and more to impress him and prove her worth. She was experienced with music in general and was slowly starting to get used to answering phones throughout the day.

She slaved so hard she actually didn't notice time go by so quickly. By the time her shift ended, she had fully completed the list she was given. She patted herself on the back for doing such a large amount of work despite being an amateur, and she couldn't wait to see his stupid dumbstruck face when he saw what she accomplished.

She strutted into his office with pep in her step. He had been so focused on whatever he was looking at on his computer that he didn't notice her presence.

She dropped a stack of papers on his desk, making a loud smacking noise. She dusted off her hands and rested her hands on her hips.

"All done with your paperwork Mr. Bowen."

He raises a brow at the papers in front of him before gazing up at her. "You filed all of the cabinets?"

She nods. "Mm hm."

"Answered and replied to all my emails and calls accordingly?"

"Yes sir."

"Did you reschedule that one appoint-"

"Already done." She interrupts.

She had a smug look on her face, and he just gave her his signature blank stare. She couldn't tell if he was impressed or disappointed.

He breaks their little staring competition and glances through the papers in front of him. She impatiently waited for him to say something as he skimmed through each sheet, looking for something to critique.

He pauses when he spots a mistake. He pulls out the paper from the bottom of the deck and holds it up.

"See anything wrong with this Ms. Salazar-Roberts?"

She bends down and squints to see any mistakes but doesn't see any. "No sir, I don't."

"Not shocking considering you didn't catch it the first time. The last paragraph of this letter is full of grammar mistakes. Go redo this entire thing so that it's readable."

Her smirk falls as she takes the paper from his hand. "Yes sir." She walks out of his office with her head hanging low. It seems like no matter what she did, he'd just shoot her down.

She decides not to let it get to her. If anything, this should make her want to strive to be better. He was gonna be a hard nut to crack, but she just knows she'll eventually find some way to get his stamp of approval.

***

"So Neens, how's your new job?"

Nini groaned and leaned her head back onto her recliner chair. She took a large sip of the cheap wine in her hands.

"I'll take that as a bad sign."

Nini nodded. "He's a dick. I feel like I'm never gonna be enough for what he's asking of me. Also, he has me doing his fucking laundry for him, which is insane to me. I thought that stuff only happened in the movies."

Kourtney raises a brow. "Wait, really? Damn girl, I hope that paycheck is worth it cuz it couldn't be me. If I were you, I'd walk right in there and-"

"Kourt, I _start_ with over 90k annually."

Kourtney choked on her wine. "Holy shit, yeah Imma need you to suck that up cuz lord knows I was struggling with rent."

Nini chuckled under her breath at her quick change of heart. "Yeah, that's what I thought." Nini tossed a grape at her, and Kourtney dodged it.

Nini feels her phone buzz and sees she got an email from Ricky. She opens it and rolled her eyes when she saw it was another ridiculous demand. This was the seventh time tonight he's contacted her.

"I'm gonna scream if he keeps barking orders at me all throughout the day. I swear he's trying to get a rise out of me."

"Make sure you just put on a smile because I'm not letting you lose that job."

"Wow, you're really valuing my paycheck more than my sanity. I see how it is."

"Yeah and what about it?" Kourtney stuck her tongue out at her.

Nini scoffed and made a mock hurt face. "And to think I was going to share my chips with you. Well you can forget about that missy."

"You know I love you Neens."

Nini plopped down on their couch and hugged her best friend. "And I love you. Now, let's start the show. Those _Teen Wolf_ men are truly the temporary remedy to all my problems."

Kourtney hums. "Amen to that."

***

The next few days, she slowly started to get the hang of everything but not quite. It was getting his dry cleaning that was always the hardest to do since she didn't live close to where he takes it.

Today, he only requested she bring him a cup of coffee and a singular white blouse from the cleaners, which was minuscule compared to his former requests.

She was there at 7:45 a.m. (she figured out what he considered on time by the sixth day) knocking on his office door. She hears a muffled "come in" from the other side and entered.

At first, she didn't see any sign of him despite hearing his voice.

"Mr. Bowen?"

"In here." He says before exiting his private bathroom.

She froze when she saw he most definitely was _not_ dressed. He came out with only a towel wrapped around his waist, and he was slightly damp from what she assumes was a shower. Seriously, how big was this office?

She was speechless as she stared at her half naked boss. She didn't notice under all the blazers how chiseled his chest was and how defined his biceps were. She admits to herself that he was indeed physically attractive.

"It's rude to stare Ms. Salazar-Roberts."

She blushes at being caught. She thinks she saw his lips turn into a small smirk before quickly falling into a straight line.

"I wasn't staring!" She says with a slight British accent. She's happy he doesn't know that's what happens when she lies yet.

"Sure you weren't." He walks up to her and takes a sip of the coffee. Nini tried her best to focus anywhere else but his chest, but it was basically impossible when it was just right in front of her.

"Did you hear me?"

She snapped out of her daze and met his eyes. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't."

"I said you can rest my shirt on the couch and head to your office."

"Oh okay, sure sorry." Her face was burning up from embarrassment of being caught twice (and maybe from being a little worked up from the sight in front of her, but she has too much pride to admit that).

She leaves his shirt neatly on the sofa. When she spun on her heel, she didn't expect him to be as close to her as he was. She accidentally bumps into his bare chest, resting her palms on his abdomen.

She didn't have to look in the mirror to know her entire face was the color of an apple. "Fuck, sorry sir. Fuck, sorry for cussing. Oh shit, I did it again. Dammit, that wasn't better. Ugh! You know what? I'll just shut up and leave now. Call me if you need me."

She avoided eye contact as she sped walked to the door. She gave him an awkward wave before exiting the room. When the door was shut, he couldn't help but let out a chuckle at her antics. 

She's definitely going to be an interesting one; that's for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes the first chapter. Hope y'all like it so far! They're like a combo of the couple from _Secretary_ (2002) but will have the banter of the couple in _The Proposal_ (2009).
> 
> I’m gonna aim for 10 chapters for this, but I haven’t put a set number yet just in case I add or subtract a chapter.
> 
> Any who, lmk what y’all think so far! I didn’t want to start off with smut scenes since I felt it was far too soon, but obviously sexy scenes will come in the very near future. I’ll tell y’all when there’s sex in a chapter in the beginning notes.


	2. The Devil Wears Silk

Nini anxiously tapped her foot on the ground. She has exactly 25 minutes until Ricky walks through the main entrance, it was a 15 minute walk to the office, and this dude in front of her at the Starbucks could _not_ for the life of him choose what the _fuck_ he wanted to order.

She kept checking the time every few seconds, feeling her heart beat faster with every wasted moment. Ricky had told her to be there at 7:45 today since he was expecting more calls than usual due to new clients, and she did not want to possibly screw this up. Of course today is the day of all days her car decided it needed a battery change. 

"Hmm so you're saying a grande is a medium, and a tall is a small here? Well that's contradictory." The man says.

Nini grunted and tilted her head back. She's convinced this man has never ordered a coffee here in his life. 

The cashier had a patient smile, and Nini was genuinely impressed that she could hold up that façade when this guy has been trying to order for five minutes now. "Yes sir, that's correct."

The man hums. "Fascinating, and you're saying that a venti is actually-"

Nini let out a loud groan, causing a few of the people to look at her. "Oh my god dude, I will literally pay for your drink if you let me order. I need to be somewhere like _now."_

The man gave her a blank face before smiling. "Be my guest."

She whips out a ten dollar bill and aggressively hands it to him as she makes her way to the register. 

"I'll have a grande black coffee please."

She tapped her fingernails on the counter as she watched the barista pour the drink far too slowly for Nini's liking. When the cashier rings her up, she practically snatches the cup and leaves another ten on the counter, not caring about change right now. 

She checks her phone to see how much time she has left. It was 7:29, which means she only has a minute to spare. She began running as fast as she could with a cup of joe in her hand and with worn out black pumps from Target. 

She could feel the wind messing up her freshly done curls, but she wasn't concerned with that at the moment. She was not getting yelled at or worse fired because some random dude was indecisive. She's gotten too far to go down like that.

She accidentally collided into a few people as she crossed the walkways, only giving them a brief apology. She finally saw the building a few feet away and smiled, but her face fell when she saw the crosswalk light turn red. 

She stopped in her motions, almost falling on her face. She eyed at her phone clock again, 7:40.

_Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit._

She considered jaywalking, but there were too many cars, and she thinks she saw a cop car drive by. She eyed the crosswalk light as if it would magically turn green again if she stared at it long enough. 

When it finally gave her the clear to cross, she booked it. A little bit of the coffee had spilled onto her hand causing her to wince, but her adrenaline had cancelled out the pain. 

She forgot to look across the street in front of the building and almost gets hit by a pick up truck, but she doesn't even notice it. She barges through the front doors, panting like she just ran a marathon. 

Ashlyn had looked at her worried and a little confused on why she had been in such a hurry. 

"Nini, did you run here?"

Nini walks up to the desk and struggles to get a word out. "What time is it?" She says breathlessly. Nini didn't even have the energy to check her phone. 

Ashlyn checks her computer monitor. "It's 7:46, why?"

Nini rolls her eyes and groans for the millionth time this morning. "I swear I can never catch a break!"

Ashlyn furrowed her brows. "Why are you here so early?"

"What do you mean? I was supposed to come at 7:45 sharp today."

Ashlyn shook her head. "No, Ricky told me to expect you around 8:30."

Nini looked at her with a lost expression. "What?"

"Yeah, he called me this morning and said he'd be coming in at 9 for a meeting with an upcoming artist and that you would come in thirty minutes earlier. Did he not tell you?"

Nini held back the scream she desperately wanted to release. She slammed the coffee and dropped her head on the counter.

Ashlyn could tell she was going through it, so she began fixing some of her loose curls that had been ruined by the wind. "Maybe he forgot to tell you." 

"Yeah right." Nini lifted her head. "I'm gonna go upstairs, get settled in I guess, and gee I don't know go punch a hole in the wall. See you later Ashlyn." 

Ashlyn gave her a sympathetic smile as she watched Nini drag her feet to the elevator like she always does when Ricky does something like this. 

An hour later, Ricky came through the elevator doors. When he passed by her office, he saw her slouching in her chair looking like she was going to fall asleep soon. 

"Ms. Salazar-Roberts, I don't believe you get paid to sleep."

She sprung up when she heard his voice. "When did you get here?"

"Just now." He looks her over and sees she looks exhausted, and he's sure that's a coffee stain on her blouse. "Next time, maybe don't stay up all night on a week day. Is that clear?" 

She clenched her jaw and balled up her fist. She could not believe he had the _audacity_ to stand there and act like he wasn't the reason she looked like death right now. But she paints on a fraudulent smile to hide her slowly growing animosity for him. 

"Crystal." 

He nods before heading to his office. When she hears his door shut, her smile falls. She flips him off, buries her face in her purse, and lets out a muffled scream. This man would be the death of her. 

***

"Well if it isn't _the_ Richard Bowen."

Ricky looks up from his desk and rolls his eyes when he sees his best friend. "Red, you know not to call me that." 

"And you know that I will never stop calling you that despite all of your protests." 

"And why exactly are you gracing me with your presence during office hours when you should be four floors below me in HR?"

"Glad you asked." He shut the door behind him as he plopped down in the seat across from the CEO. He rested his feet on the desk. "A little birdie told me that there was an upcoming banquet in a few months."

Ricky sighed. He hated that damned banquet with a burning passion. It was basically a bunch of people in the music industry dressing up as if it were the Met Gala, trying to buy your company from you. 

"Does that little birdie happen to be Ashlyn by any chance?"

Red gave him finger guns. "How'd you guess?" 

"She looks forward to that stupid banquet every year, and you're her date every single time."

"Okay well maybe that wasn't too hard of a guess, but I happened to notice that you go dateless every single year."

Ricky groans when he realizes the reason why he was here. "Whatever you're about to suggest, the answer is no."

"But there was this one lady that was-"

"No."

"But I swear she's-"

"Not interested."

"Oh come on dude, you gotta-"

"I will literally jump out the window if you set me up with somebody." 

Red slumped down in his chair. "Boo, you're no fun." 

"Did you only come up here to bug me about my dating life?"

"Well that was my first priority, but I also had a burning question." 

"And that question is?"

Red takes his feet off the desk. "How is the new secretary holding up? Can't believe I never managed to bump into her yet."

Ricky shrugs. "She's alright; I keep her busy."

"She must be more than alright if you haven't fired her, and she hasn't quit after two months of dealing with you. She must be emotionally strong because I could never." 

"She gets her work done."

Red smirks. "Maybe you can ask her to the banquet since she can actually tolerate you."

Ricky rolls his eyes. "Do you really wanna be the reason I jump 20 floors?"

Red holds up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright calm down. I was just suggesting it. In all seriousness though, don't be too hard on her. You haven't had a secretary in literally over two years because you're harsh with your odd management methods."

"It's all part of the training process."

"Mental torture?"

"No, I'm seeing if she can keep her word. She said she could handle the unexpected, so that's what I've been testing her on." 

"Is she doing well?"

Ricky sucked the inside of his cheek. "I think she has a chance." 

Red shook his head. "Bro, she's better than me. I'd just quit after the first day. No money is worth it." 

"That's cuz you can't handle a little pressure."

Red flipped him off, making Ricky chuckle under his breath. Red being the little shit that he is wanted to bother him some more. "Is she pretty?"

Ricky made an awkward noise. "Does it matter?"

"That's not an answer."

"It's not the answer you wanted, but it's an answer." 

"Are you not telling me because you think she's attractive?"

"You know, I actually have a lot of work to do. We can talk later, okay?"

Red smirks. "Fine, but this isn't over." 

"I don't doubt it." 

Red hopped up from his spot and walked over to the door. When he opened it, he was greeted by a smaller woman who he assumed must have been the new secretary. 

Red smiles and holds out his hand. "Hi, you must be the poor unfortunate soul that has to deal with my best friend."

Nini grins and shakes his hand. "I'm Nini, Mr. Bowen's secretary."

"I'm Big Red, his right hand man."

"Big Red is one hell of a name."

"It stands out doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but in a good way of course."

Red turns to Ricky. "I like her. Keep her around." 

Ricky screws his eyes in the back of his head. "Red, weren't you just leaving?"

"And that's my cue to go." Red turns back to Nini and gives her a friendly smile. "It was nice meeting you Nini. Also, you're very pretty." 

Nini blushes. "Awe thank you. It was nice meeting you too."

When Red walks behind her, he gives a thumbs up to Ricky and mouths "she's perfect" to him before leaving them alone in his office.

"I was just here to drop off some paperwork."

She reaches over his desk as she places a few memos in his inbox. Ricky had accidentally seen a little down her shirt as she was bent over. It was hard to miss the pink lace through her top. He quickly averted his eyes, hoping she didn't notice. 

When she stands upwards, she accidentally hits a few pens, causing them to fall to the floor. 

"Sorry! I'll get that."

She bends over right in front of him giving him a perfect view of her ass. He bit the inside of his cheek as he was captivated momentarily before forcing his eyes to look away. She places the pens on his desk and gives him a grin.

"Call me if you need me." 

He nods and watches her as she leaves his office. When she left, he let out a sigh he didn't know he was holding. Damn Big Red for getting into his head. 

***

Nini had been typing up an email when she hears a knock on her office door. She looks up to see her boss staring at her.

"Let's go."

She lifts a brow. "What?"

"I said let's go. I don't want to deal with traffic."

Nini was trying to recall if they had something planned today but couldn't remember anything. "I'm sorry; where are we going exactly?"

"Errands, now enough chit chat. Lunch rush is soon, and my driver is waiting outside for us."

Before she could question him again, he walks away. She swiftly grabs her purse and jacket before meeting him at the elevator.

"May I ask where we're going?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"Well alrighty then."

When they got outside of the lobby, Nini saw the hummer waiting for them. The driver was dressed fancy and had a friendly smile. 

"Good afternoon Mr. Bowen and the misses."

"No need for the formalities for me; I'm just a secretary. You can call me Nina."

"Well it's nice to meet you Nina." He opens the car door for the both of them. Ricky slides in first with Nini following behind.

The driver gets into the driver's seat and looks at Ricky through the rear view mirror. "Where to sir?"

"The Square."

The driver nods as he starts up the engine. Nini looks over at her boss. "What's the Square? I don't think I've been there."

"It's complicated." 

"How can a place be complicated?"

"If it were easy to explain, I wouldn't say it was complicated."

"Is this some underground place or something?" 

"You ask a lot of questions, you know that?"

"Well maybe if you weren't so vague..."

"You'll see what I mean when we get there. Leave it at that." 

Nini holds her hand up in surrender, accepting he wasn't gonna budge.

Fifteen minutes later, they pull into some street that was full of people scurrying like mice in business attire. When they get out of the car, she observed her surroundings. She saw men being tossed at of a casino, men who looked like they belonged on Wall Street trying to sell someone on a period scheme, and a group of well dressed women in playing a brutal round of blackjack. It was like stepping into an Ocean's Eleven movie. 

"What the hell is this place?"

"I told you it was called the Square."

"Why're we here exactly?"

"Shopping." 

"For what?"

"You and I."

She was taken aback by his words. "Me?! What're we getting?"

"You're attending a private poker game with me, and there's a dress code."

"I don't know how to play!"

"You don't have to know because I'll be the one playing."

"Do I really have to attend?"

"You're coming along since it's a room full of musicians and artists. A lot of them like to be treated to pleasantries before being persuaded into signing. You're more friendly and approachable, so I figured you could lure them in easier."

"I guess I could do it."

"Good, because we're already at our first destination." He tilts his head towards the shop in front of them.

It was an upscale clothing store meant for events like proms, balls, etc. "I don't think I could afford this yet."

"Company cards exist for a reason." 

When they enter the store, Ricky immediately drags her to the men's section. It was obvious that he's been here before since he went straight for the aisle full of silk blouses. He grabs a handful of them and places them in Nini's arms. The stack went all the way up to her forehead.

"Follow me."

"Kind of hard to when the clothes are blocking my eyesight sir." 

"Make it work." 

Nini cusses under her breath as she tries not to stumble on her way to the dressing room. When they find a room for him, he points to the spot he wanted them.

When she set them down, she stretched out her arms. "Well, I'll be waiting outside for, oh-"

She wasn't prepared for her boss to begin stripping his top off when she turned around. 

Nini felt her heartbeat quicken. "Do you want me to leave?"

"I need a second opinion."

"I-I uh, well okay then." 

She watched as he tossed his shirt aside and tried her best to not stare like she did last time she saw him shirtless. He puts on a purple silk top and leaves the top unbuttoned. She admits it suited him well, but it wasn't the best choice for a poker game.

"What do you think?"

She gives him an unsure look. "It's nice..."

"But?"

"I think the wine red one would suit you better. I feel it fits the energy of a casino room." 

He unbuttons the purple top and sits it beside her. He takes the shirt she suggested and put it on a mere few inches away from her. She tried to stare at the ceiling to avoid ogling. 

"How do I look?"

She looks at him and liked what she saw. "I think we already found the one."

He checks himself in the mirror and shrugs. "Hm, I guess it'll do for now. Go put the rest back." 

She does as told and quickly leaves the room. As she places all the blouses back on the rack, she spots a dress from the corner of her eye. It was a gorgeous strapless wine red mermaid dress that went down to the ground. It was something she'd only dream of affording.

"Try it on."

She jumps when she hears the voice of her boss behind her. "When did you get there?"

"That dress would be perfect for tonight. It also matches my blouse."

"It's probably at least a few hundred dollars."

"Do you want it?"

"I mean, of course but shouldn't we-"

"Then it's settled. Go get it; I'll wait outside."

Before she could get another word in, he's already walked off. She goes over and carefully grabs the dress. She was attentive as she slipped on the expensive dress, not wanting to risk destroying it. When she fastened everything, she smiled at herself in the mirror.

She peaked out the door before slowly exiting the room. She stood with her hands behind her back. "So um what do you think?" 

She can't tell what he was thinking by his expression as his eyes analyzed her. He bites the inside of his cheek before clearing his throat. "We're getting it."

"Really? Cuz I checked the price tag and it's-" 

He holds his hand up to silence her. 

"Just go get your things so we can leave." 

She nods and gathers her clothes. By the time she's done, he's already standing at the exit with his blouse. 

"Let's go, the game is soon." 

"But don't we need to pay for-" 

"Already done." He waves the receipt. "Come on, we've got like ten minutes." 

She speed walks as fast as she could in the tight dress. To her surprise, Ricky locked arms with her. She was thrilled because her stupid pumps had been hurting her feet, and she wasn’t sure she’d make it that far. 

“How far is it? These heels have been killing me.”

“Look up.”

She glanced in front of her and was shocked she somehow managed to miss the larger than life casino standing right in front of her. 

“This is the place?!”

Right as she said that, a man was thrown out of the front door on his face by a bodyguard. Nini gasped in horror while Ricky stared at him as if it were just another day. 

“Yep, this is _definitely_ the right place.”

“Oh god...”

“Let’s go.”

“Wait, shouldn’t we help him?”

“Trust me, he definitely deserved it if he got kicked out of this place.”

“If you say so.”

They both walk around the man groaning in pain and enter the premises. They’re greeted with the pungent smell of hard liquor and an assortment of drugs, making Nini scrunch up her nose.

“This smells like The Rolling Stones’ studio.”

“Well, they’ve actually came here before.”

“Holy shit, for real?”

“Yeah, big groups like that come here all the time, but back to business.” He scans the room until he spots the table he was set at. “See that table over there?” He points at it, and she nods. “That’s where I’ll be. The people playing the game don’t want to be talked to unless they speak to you first. The people observing the game are the targets. Try to get their info.”

“I won’t let you down sir.”

“We’ll see about that.”

When they arrive at the table, he unlocks his arm from her and sits down in his reserved spot. Nini skims the group to see who’d more than likely hear her out. She catches the eye of a man who she assumed was in his late 20’s. 

As if the man could tell she was looking, he flicked his eyes over to her and gave her a smirk. Nini already knew she’d have to boost up her charm since he gave off the fuckboy energy. She walks up to him and offers her hand. 

“Hi, I’m Nina.”

He makes a crooked smile and shakes her hand. “I’m Jack. Not that I’m complaining, but what’s a beautiful woman like you doing here at such a brutal place?”

She blushes. “Well, to speak to people like you.”

He smirks. “Is that so? Well lucky for you, I’m all ears sweetheart.” He wraps an arm around her waist. “What do you say we go somewhere more private?” He trails his cold fingers along her back, making her shiver.

“Oh um...” She looked over to Ricky and wasn’t shocked to see he was already staring at her with disapproving eyes. Ricky shook his head. 

“Actually, I think you’re not the guy after all, sorry.”

“Seriously, you’re just gonna lead me on like that and bail?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“Whatever.” He let’s go of her and walks to another table surrounded by beautiful women. Nini grimaced at him. She was definitely off to a rough start.

“Men like that are the worst.”

Nini spun her head to her left to see a shorter woman about her age.

Nini nods. “Tell me about it.”

“I’d like to say that he’s not like most of the men in here, but I’d be lying.”

“Well that’s just wonderful.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been coming here every Friday, so I actually can pick up on the bad apples.”

“Your talent will definitely be needed tonight.” Nini stuck out her hand to shake. “Nina Salazar-Roberts, secretary.”

She smiles and shakes her hand. “Natalie Bagley, artist.”

“Artist huh? Do you happen to be signed to anyone already?”

“No, my manager and I have been searching for someone, but we haven’t found one we liked yet.”

Nini beams. “I think you and I have a lot to discuss.”

A few fruity drinks and a couple of tipsy induced laughs later, Nini is getting Natalie’s contact info and vise versa with a promise to set up a meeting. Natalie was even kind enough to point to all the people who weren’t signed yet and to the ones who she shouldn’t approach. They hugged and went separate ways. 

Natalie was a major help since Nini was able to get a variety of numbers from everyone Natalie directed her to. She found this as a success and hoped it’d please her insatiable boss.

By evening, the casino was beginning to die down, which meant it was time to go. A light headed Nini found her way back to her boss standing at the poker table. 

“Found anyone?”

“Anyone?” She empties out a purse full of business cards. “More like half the joint.”

Ricky seemed genuinely surprised to see she had gotten so many numbers. He read some of the names, recognizing a few of them. “This’ll do. It’s getting late; we should head out.”

She sighs, a little disappointed with his reaction. She thinks that was his own way of saying good job, so she lets herself believe that for her own sake. 

***

She's been cranky as hell for the last few days due to lack of sleep. She was impressed she was even standing upright. Like most sleep deprived people, she got snappy. Getting snappy with Ricky wasn't her brightest idea.

She had been bossed around all day more than usual due to them getting a potential contract with an upcoming singer named Natalie, who Nini met at the casino. Ricky wanted everything to be perfect. It seemed as if nothing was good enough for him. It was only a matter of time before she was bound to bite back.

They had been standing in the elevator as it went down, both staring blankly at the doors.

"Do you have all my notes?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you remember my suggestions?"

"Sure do."

"And did you get my-"

"For fucks sake, everything's covered!" She accidentally yells. She quickly backs down and clears her throat. "Sorry."

He raises a brow at her but doesn't say a word. Lucky for her, the elevator doors slide open. She swiftly flees to the conference room where the client and her manager already were. Nini puts on a fake smile as she walks over to Natalie.

"Hi, it’s nice to see you again Natalie. As you know, I'm Bowen's secretary."

Ricky bumps her shoulder as he passes her. "I'm Ricky Bowen. Sorry, she isn't supposed to go first." He gives Nini a pointed glare as he shakes the hand of the client. 

Nini scowled back but quickly fixed her attitude for the sake of the client. " _Anyways_ , why don't we all sit down and begin?”

Natalie beams. "Sure! Can we first talk about what I should set as my genre on my album? Other labels we've met with have me some ideas, but I wasn't feeling them. I'm still so indecisive, but I have a good feeling about you two."

Ricky grins. "Absolutely." He pulls out a disk of her CD. "My secretary and I have already listened to the entirety of your album, and I have a few ideas on how to market it."

"I do too actually." Nini chips in.

She can see Ricky giving her a baffled look from her side vision, which didn't surprise her. He instructed her to write down his notes on what he thought was best for her, but she decided to add a few of her own when she found herself disagreeing with his ideas.

He doesn't remove his eyes from Nini. "Sorry Natalie, I wasn't aware that my secretary decided to go rogue on me."

Nini didn't want to meet his eyes since she feared she might end up in a glaring contest with him. "Well, I just wanted to add a second opinion since I caught a few mishaps in his notes."

"I assure you there are no mishaps in what I wrote."

"Oh sir, I can assure you there were. Matter of fact, I even circled them for you." She slid one of the sheets to his side so he could see for himself.

He snatched the sheet and huffed. "What's wrong with a winter themed album?"

Nini shrugs. "Well you see, her songs are very happy go lucky and makes me feel like I'm sitting on a beach in the Bahamas with a margarita in one hand and a blunt in the other."

"That's inappropriate."

"I didn't realize the word blunt was a cuss word."

"It's not; it's just taboo for a business meeting."

Nini finally peered at him. "Maybe for a normal business meeting, but this is a record label. People sing about marijuana usage all the time. Does Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, and Snoop Dogg ring a bell? All of them sing about it all the time, and no one gets on their asses about it."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course I know those artists, but Natalie isn't on the same spectrum, which is why she should go with my ideas."

"Well sir, _maybe_ your ideas are playing it too safe."

"Well _maybe_ your ideas are too off the rails Ms. Salazar-Roberts."

They both glare daggers at one another, completely oblivious to the tension they've created in the room.

Natalie clears her throat in hopes of stopping their feud. "I'm willing to hear the both of your ideas. The more the merrier, right?"

Ricky is the first to break the stare down and slides his stack of notes over to Natalie and her manager.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's start with mine since it was the original plan anyway."

Nini made a mocking face behind his back as she folded her arms on her chest. 

"I had a picture printed out of what I think the album cover should look like to match the energy I got from when I heard it."

It was a photo of the back of a girl stargazing from her balcony at night in her pjs with a hot cocoa. It was a very cozy setting.

Natalie smiles. "Oh this is so cute!"

Ricky smirks and gives Nini a gloating look. "I figured you would."

"Though I do enjoy stargazing, I believe that it's missing something, but I can't put my finger on it."

Ricky's smirk falters while Nini tried to contain her smile. She decided this was a better time than ever to pitch her idea.

"Well maybe it’s missing a little more livelihood." 

Nini pulls out a photo she printed of a gorgeous valley full of vibrant flowers with the multi-color sunset in the horizon.

"I really felt like this matched your aesthetic more sense your music is very comforting and indie style. What do you think?"

Natalie grazed over the album cover with her thumb. She smiles at it. "I love this one too, but it's still missing something."

Natalie pushed both of their albums next to each other and compared them. Nini and Ricky watched, letting anticipation completely consume them. Natalie snapped her fingers when she realized what was absent. 

"That's it!" She shoved both covers in front of the pair. "I like Nina's cover more since I do agree it's more summery."

Nini made a cocky smile at Ricky. "Told you so."

"However." Natalie points at Ricky's cover. "It gives off the vibe of stargazing on a peaceful night, so how about we just mix both?"

Nini scrunches her brows while Ricky kept his signature unreadable expression. 

"Wait, so you want my idea of the valley, but you're stargazing instead of looking at the sunset?"

Natalie nods. "Exactly, glad we're on the same wavelength Nina."

Ricky sighs and gives Natalie. Nini knew that was the one he made when he was going to say something he's not gonna like. "I think we can make that happen." 

Natalie claps. "Fantastic, I knew I was right to feel like this place would have all the answers for me!"

"So does that mean we can sign you?" Ricky asks.

Natalie peers over at her manager who had been sitting on the sidelines. Her manager gave her a faint nod, making Natalie perk up. "You've got yourself a deal! Can't wait to see what else you guys will bring to the table." She reaches her hand out for them to shake. 

Ricky smiled and shook her hand. "Glad you chose us. We can deal with all the paperwork tomorrow. It was a pleasure having you."

"The pleasure was all mine! It was nice meeting you Mr. Bowen, and always nice seeing you Nina." 

Natalie and her manager shake Nini and Ricky's hands and exchange a few words before departing. The second they exit the building, Ricky drops his happy demeanor.

"You wanna tell me why the fuck you went behind my back like that in there?"

Nini rests her hand on her hip. "Well like I said earlier, I saw an error and wanted to fix it. Isn't that the reason I'm here?"

"You're here to assist me, not to pitch in ideas I didn't approve. You have to give me a heads up."

"But would you have let me if I asked?"

He goes silent for a moment, which was her answer.

"Uh huh, that's what I thought."

"That doesn't give you the green light to make a fool out of me in front of a potential client."

"She signed to us because of my idea too! Who knows if she would've been sold with just your idea? If anything, you should be thanking me."

"Enough!" Ricky roamed his hand over his face to calm his rising agitation. "I need you to work late tonight."

"But I-"

He gives her a rigorous look that was his own little way of saying she's on thin ice. She sighs in defeat, knowing she wasn't gonna win this fight.

"Fine." 

"Great, begin with printing the cover she wanted. You might wanna get started because signing clients takes a _very_ long time. Happy filing." He says tauntingly with a sarcastic smile.

He tossed both of the cover arts at her before heading back to his office. She groaned when she saw all the paper work sprawled across the conference room desk that she'd have to bring upstairs with no help. 

Despite knowing she went against her boss' wishes, she saw this as a glorious moment since she was a large part of the reason Natalie has a contract with them. This was just affirmation that he needed her, which made her smile. 

She walks with her head held high as she made her way to her office. She'll be damned if Ricky Bowen ruins this high for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry smut is next; I just had to build a tensioned relationship first so it didn't seem too rushed. Any who, leave your thoughts!


	3. Punishment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Warning: Smut is in this chapter! Oh who am I kidding? That's what you're here for. Enjoy ;)**
> 
> **There do be a little S &M 👀**

It's been four months, and the most important things Nini has learned about Ricky Bowen was that he was impossible, stubborn, and a fucking douchebag.

She has been doing his stupid little errands for him such as crazy long hours in the office after it's closed and making her shine his shoes. She's pretty sure secretaries weren't supposed to be maids to their bosses. If she were being honest, she was sick of it.

As Nini walks in the office building with his cup of coffee one one hand and a freshly pressed suit on the other hand, she gets a text from him that's barking more orders. She lets out a frustrated groan, causing Ashlyn to turn her attention to her.

"Is it Ricky?"

"When is it _not_ Ricky?"

"True." Ashlyn patted the area by her desk that Nini usually sat on when she spoke with her. "Wanna tell me about it before you go up?"

"Ricky would have my head if I wasn't on time...again."

"Oh please, he wouldn't dare fire you now. You're in too deep, and he knows he can't do any better at this point whether he wants to admit that or not."

Nini hopped up on the counter with a grunt. "It sure doesn't feel that way."

"Honestly, you're the best we've ever had. The longest lasting secretary only lasted a month before quitting."

"Probably because of the after hours, his bitchy attitude, ridiculous chores, and don't even get me started on the spontaneous adventures."

Ashlyn shook her head. "You know now that you say it, I don't recall him working his former secretaries as hard as he's worked you. He hates after hours with a burning passion."

That surprised her. "Wait really? It seems like he'll stop at nothing just to make me sit in that damn office with him for another two hours going over all my work to make sure it's perfect. It's come to the point where I just expect it. Good thing I'm salaried instead of paid hourly I guess."

"Yeah, he also makes you do a lot more personal favors and unplanned trips than usual. The other ones didn't have to pick up his laundry or worry about anything related to his personal life. Matter of fact, he wasn't too fond of people touching his personal belongings."

That made Nini extremely annoyed. Why did this guy have a personal vendetta against her? Did she royally piss him off in some other life and now he's punishing her with obnoxious tasks? Well, she's had about enough of it.

"It was nice speaking with you Ash, but I think I must be going. Bowen and I _definitely_ need to exchange a few words."

Before Ashlyn could ask what, Nini was walking towards the elevator. On the ride up, she felt her blood boiling. She didn't know what came over her, but she knew she had to get this off her chest.

The second the doors slid open, she strutted fiercely to the double doors. She didn't even knock when she barged into his office. The sudden entrance makes his head snap up from his laptop. She tossed his laundry onto his overpriced ottoman.

"I have a bone to pick with you."

He seems taken aback by her boldness. "Well good morning to you too."

She ignores his sarcastic comment and struts to his desk. She slams the coffee on his desk, resulting in a little bit of the drink splashing on his calendar. 

"What the hell did I do to you?"

He tilts his head to the side. "What?"

"What did I do that was so bad that you treat me like some servant or whatever? Surely this wasn't in the employee handbook."

"Are you unsatisfied with your position?" He says calmly, which only fuels her frustration with him.

"Yeah, kind of! I don't mean to be ungrateful, but some of your requests are insane. Honestly, it feels like you're out to get me, and I don't know why. So tell me what I did that ticked you off so I can be treated civilly."

He stayed silent as he stared at the furious woman in front of him. "I should be getting a call soon. Make sure you're ready to take notes." 

He turns his attention back to his laptop, completely ignoring her plea. She felt a vein pop out of her head. She couldn't believe how much of a dickhead he was being.

She rolled her eyes and turned on her heel. She sashayed to the door. Before she left, she looked back at him to see if he had any final remarks. She stayed in the doorframe until he acknowledged her just to irritate him since she knew he hated that.

He sighed in defeat when he realized she wouldn't leave until he said something. "Is that all Ms. Salazar-Roberts?"

"For now...asshole." She whispers the last word.

He snaps his head up. "What was that? I didn't quite catch that last bit."

She puts on a fake confused expression. "I have no idea what you're talking about sir. Must be hearing things."

She gave him a wicked smirk as she closed the door, which made him give her a mildly confused look. Good, that's what she wanted.

Fine, if he wanted to be an asshole for no reason, then she was going to be as much of a nuisance to him as possible. Two can play that game sweetheart, what goes around comes back around, and all those other corny sayings too.

Throughout the week, she purposely ignored some of his orders and would "forget" to do a few of his errands for him. She'd always use some lame excuse that she knew he'd see right through. 

For instance, she said she spilled his coffee on the way to work Wednesday and didn't have time to get another. On that same day, she happened to not answer a few of his emails that he easily could've done himself, claiming she took an early lunch and didn't find time for it. 

She even spilt some of her own drink on his freshly dry cleaned clothes right in front of him. She spiced it up one time (literally) and purposely put far too much cinnamon in his mug, and boy the look on his face was priceless.

Though he wasn't vocal about it (yet), she could see the annoyance in his eyes and body language. He always had this stern look on his face when he was upset with her. Sometimes he'd clear his throat to avoid yelling.

Some sadistic side of her liked seeing him all riled up. It was nice witnessing him feel what she's felt for months now. Revenge tasted as sweet as candy. But like all sweets, too much of it results in cavities.

One day, he had surprised her. She had been in her office organizing a few shelves when she heard her door slam behind her. She quickly turns around to see an angry Ricky with a letter in his hand. She admitted to being a little afraid but didn't want to show weakness because she'll be damned if she let's him win this game.

"You seem agitated." 

"Don't get smart with me Nina."

He's never called her by her first name before, which she figures meant he must've been pissed. "What's got you so red in the face? Should I alert a doctor?" She says in her faux innocent tone. 

He approached her desk. "This." He slammed the paper in front of her. "Mind telling me what this is?"

She peered at it. "The business letter I wrote to Caswell Studios this morning."

"No, _this_..." He flings the paper around before slamming it back down on the table again. "Is garbage."

He whipped out a pen and began underlining every single error on the paper. She tried to hold back her smirk since she intentionally rewrote and misspelled a few things to make it as incoherent as possible to get a rise out of him, but he doesn't need to know that.

"Sorry Mr. Bowen I'll-"

"Meet me in my office, and bring the letter." 

He gives her a scowl before storming out of her room. When he left, she started to feel a little regretful. What if she pushed him too far and now he was going to fire her? She couldn't afford to lose this job.

She slowly walked to his office and creeped through the door. Ricky had an unreadable expression as he leaned on his desk.

"Place the letter on the desk."

She nods and does as told, having no desire to piss him off further (at least for now). She hears him close and lock the door behind her, which he rarely did since it was only the two of them on this level.

"I want you to bend over so you can see exactly where you made all your mistakes Nina. I wanna make sure you don't make them ever again."

She gives him a lost expression. "What?"

"I don't like repeating myself. I'll only say it again this one time, so get it right. Put your elbows on the desk so I know you can see every single word on that letter and read aloud."

She hesitates but eventually bends over so that she was hovering over the letter. She clears her throat before reading.

"Dear Mr. Caswell, I hope your doing well. I-"

She was interrupted by the sudden feeling of him smacking her ass. She jumped at the motion. At first she thought she was dreaming, but she could feel the sting from the area he hit.

She steadily looked over her shoulder and met eyes with him. He didn't seem fazed at all as his hand hovered over her ass.

"I didn't tell you to stop reading."

She blushes madly, finding it hard to even focus.

"Read it Nina." He says more sternly. 

She doesn't know how he's so calm right now. She averts her attention back to the letter but has a hard time not thinking about her spanking."Um, I was writing this to let you know that-"

He strikes her ass again. She let out a loud breath at the contact but tried her best to continue the task at hand.

"Mr. Bowen will be meeting you next week for a meeting discussing-"

He begins spanking her consistently instead of every few seconds, and it was hard for her to think straight. She absentmindedly arched her back and closed her eyes as he disciplined her over his desk.

She forgot about the letter in front of her and just blissfully accepted each smack, growing used to the pleasurable pain. She bit her lip to attempt to suppress a moan. She grips at the desk as she poked out her ass a little more so he had a better angle. 

He gives her a final smack before twisting her body around by her hips to face him. She saw a fiery passion in his eyes as she tried her best to not stumble due to her legs becoming jelly. He was so dangerously close to her face that she could see the microscopic freckles spread across his cheeks.

He slowly rubbed one hand up her side until that hand was on the small of her back. He didn't break his intense eye contact with her. She found herself glancing down at his lips. He stroked her chin with his free hand and rubs a thumb over her bottom lip. For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. But he doesn't.

"You're dismissed for now."

He released her and sits in his chair as if nothing just happened. She stares at him in disbelief. When he sees she hasn't budged, he looks up at her.

"Is there something you need Nina?"

She shakes her head and begins walking to the exit. 

"Nina."

She looks over her shoulder and hums as a response.

"Don't fuck up on purpose again."

She sees an almost daring look in his eye despite him telling her not to defy him. She just nods. When she closed his door behind her, she tried to comprehend what the fuck just happened in there as she rubbed the area he spanked.

She went to the full body mirror in her office and lifted up her skirt to see the number he did on her. She saw how rosy her ass was and grazed her hands on it.

She was feeling a mix of emotions right now, but the one feeling she didn't expect to outshine the others was the fact that she found herself desiring his hands on her more.

***

The next day, Nini had gone to her weekly Saturday girl's night with Kourtney and Gina. This week, they went to a bar to get a few drinks and maybe pursue a few men. Gina had been talking about some cute guy who had been staring at her across the bar that she might speak to, but Nini was only half listening.

Since that night Ricky spanked her, she couldn't stop replaying it. She's never been touched like that before by any man, especially her boss. She's never even done that with any of her past lovers, yet last night felt more intimate somehow, and neither of them were even undressed. 

Gina taps her shoulder. "Neens, are you good?" 

Nini nods her head. "Yeah sorry, I'm just a little tipsy I guess." 

"You're good. I was just trying to tell you that maybe you should try to talk to someone tonight."

Nini almost spit out her drink. "What? Why?"

"Well you haven't been with anyone since that Aidan guy a year ago, and I figured maybe you should try to talk to someone in the city since there are more options." Kourtney says. 

"Hm, I don't know. I don't think I really want to meet anybody right now."

"Why, is there someone you already have in mind?" Kourtney asks.

Nini's face turns red, making the two girls smirk.

Gina nudges her shoulder. "What's his name?"

"There is no one."

Kourtney rolls her eyes. "You little liar."

"I'm serious! I'm not seeing anyone."

"Well you definitely are _looking_ at someone at least to be blushing like that." Gina teases.

Nini sighs when she realizes that she wasn't escaping this one. She wasn't going to tell them what happened last night since something told her they'd for sure make a scene. She also hasn't fully wrapped her head around it herself. 

"Believe what you wanna believe." Nini grabbed her things before taking one last sip of her beer. "I'm a little tired. I'm gonna head out, but you guys have fun." 

Gina pokes her lip out. "Ah, but you never go home before 11 on girl's night though."

"Yeah I know, but I'm just not in the mood to stay up all night. I'll see you guys tomorrow." 

She waves at them before making the quick walk back to her place. She sighed in relief when she finally got to her room. In reality, she wasn't tired at all. All that talk about men had her thinking of Ricky, and it was making her rather _excited_. 

She locked her bedroom door, got into her pjs, and closed her eyes. She trailed a finger down her torso until it was finally in her shorts. She rolled her thumb on her center and pictured Ricky doing this to her instead. 

She harshly bit down on her bottom lip as she fantasized about his soft curly hair, his large hands, and his lean body pressed against hers as he made her feel like heaven. She arched her back as she sped up the pace and thought of him kissing her all over in all the right areas. 

She fantasized what it'd be like to be spanked over his knee on his couch or what it'd be like to kiss him like there was no tomorrow. She wanders how he'd react if she were to make another "mistake" and if she'd like it more than the last punishment. 

Just the thought of him touching her again eventually brought her over the edge, letting out a moan as she finished. Her breaths were uneven for a few seconds before calming down. 

She began blushing when she realized she had gotten off to her boss, but she didn't regret it in the slightest. For the first time since she's worked there, she was excited to see him again.

***

The next week, Ricky and Nini had been walking on eggshells around one another, both not wanting to be the first to address the elephant in the room. She thought about bringing it up but would always chicken out at the last minute.

She's been dying to know what was going on in that head of his. Was he fantasizing about her too? Did he wonder what she was thinking about last Friday? It was hard to tell. From the looks of it, he wasn't bothered at all as if spanking his secretary was something he did commonly. She wanted to ask Ashlyn if that was something he did with former women but felt maybe that wouldn't be appropriate. 

She'd always give him longing looks when he wasn't paying attention. She purposely made sure to wear more exposing outfits. They weren't so provocative that it'd be unsuitable for work, but it was definitely testing the waters.

She had worn tight fitting dresses and pencil skirts, she'd unbutton the first few buttons on her blouses to show off the results of her push up bra, wore higher heels, she'd wiggle her hips more around him to draw more attention to them.

She also really pushes the limit by "accidentally" grazing against him or saying innuendos. She doesn't only do it when they're alone. She gives him footsies during office meetings, "unintentionally" grinds herself on him in full elevators and blames it on being shoved, and lingers her fingers every time their hands touch.

She had been doing that for almost a week straight, and it seemed like he either wasn't getting the hint or he just wasn't interested. She had been looking through some paperwork when she heard him enter her office.

He had an odd look in his eyes, and his chest was rising rapidly. He begins walking up to her with determination.

"Mr. Bowen what're you-"

He cuts her off with a kiss. She was completely taken aback by the sudden gesture. Right before she was going to kiss back, he released her lips and lifted her chin up.

"You're a little tease, you know that?"

She felt herself get excited. She was happy he finally acknowledged her flirting. "No idea what you're talking about sir."

"Bullshit. You've been finding a way to get my attention for roughly two weeks now."

She couldn't hide her smirk any longer. "So what if I were?"

They stare at each other for a second, waiting for someone to make a move. To her surprise, he suddenly pulls her up from her seat and throws her over his shoulder. She lets out a yelp at the motion from both excitement and shock.

He begins walking to his office. When they enter his room, he closes and locks the door behind him. He slaps her ass before placing her back on the ground.

"Strip down to your underwear, Nina."

She gives him a seductive look as she slowly undoes her blouse and unzips her pencil skirt, not breaking her eye contact with him. She tosses both items of clothing to the side leaving her in her matching set of lace underwear.

He licks his lips at the sight. She can see his tent through his slacks. "Lay down on your back."

She waste no time as she gets comfortable on the couch, spreading her legs out for him. She watches as he slides off his loose blouse revealing his bare chest to her. He unfastens his fly but doesn't take off his pants. He got on the couch and began kissing his way up her body. 

He kissed the inside of her thighs, sinfully close to her center. He makes eye contact with her as he licks her clit from the outside of her thong. She was about to wrap her legs around his head, but he begins kissing up her torso. When he gets to her breast, he cups both mounds and begins kneading them. 

He sucks on her left breast, causing her to moan. He noticed she was wearing a front clasp bra, so he unlatched it. He didn't waste anytime as he took turns sucking on her nipples. She gripped his head of curls at the gesture.

He sucked them until both were bruised with pink hickeys. When he was satisfied with his work, he began kissing his way up to her neck. When he began sucking on her neck, she wrapped her legs around his waist. 

He grinded his hips against hers, desiring some more friction. He begins nibbling on the most sensitive area of her neck, resulting in her blissfully sighing. He gropes her left breast as he tattoos her neck with his lips. 

Nini loved this, but she desperately wanted him to penetrate her in some way. "Ricky, please touch me."

He grumbles against her skin. "You've been resisting my orders all week Nina; I think you're in need of a little discipline." 

She whined, but quickly started moaning again when he lightly bites on her shoulder. He trails his lips and tongue along her neck until he finally reaches her lips. He brings her into an open mouthed and passionate kiss. 

They battle for dominance with their tongues and to no one's surprise he ended up winning. Not wanting to wait any longer, Nini snuck her hand down to the front of his pants and grabbed his bulge. The motion makes him moan into her mouth, and he grinded his shaft into her hand.

He smirks against her lips before detaching their lips. "You don't know how to listen do you?"

She didn't answer; she just gave his shaft another stroke to shut him up. It worked efficiently. She smirked when she saw his orgasmic face when she grazed his tip. He was really enjoying her touch, but he wanted to be the one in control right now. 

It took everything in him to remove her hand from his tip. He completely got off of her, and he refrained from giggling when he saw the pout on her face. 

"Take off your thong." 

She slowly slides out of her lacey thong, only leaving her in her heels and thigh highs. Ricky pulled down his slacks and boxer briefs, revealing his rather impressive shaft to her. She found herself shamelessly ogling his nude body. 

She felt herself become more moist and trailed her fingers to her core. He lifts her legs up to sit on the couch and flips her on her stomach so that her ass was poked out. He centered her on his lap and rubbed his hand on her ass. 

He gives her a firm smack, causing her to jump. She arches her back so he can have a better angle as she crosses her ankles. He rubs her cheeks and gives her a few more smacks. After he gave his last strike, he grazed his finger down her soaked slit. 

He found his way to her clit and began, rubbing it in circles. She began squirming in his arms ruining his rhythm. He stops his movements and slaps her ass as a warning.

"If you don't stay still, I'll leave you here hot and bothered. You don't want that do you?"

She shakes her head. "No, sir."

He smirks. "That's what I thought." 

He positioned her in a better position so that he could reach her clit more efficiently. He started his previous motions except he moved his fingers faster. He felt her trying her best to restrain from squirming. He decides to insert two fingers into her, knowing that she'd definitely begin to jerk her hips.

She closed her eyes tightly and grabbed at the couch cushions as she tried her best not to lose her balance. He began quickening his fingers, loving that her juices were flowing down his fingers. 

"F-fuck..." She says in a breathy moan. 

She absentmindedly bucked her hips on his hand. He stopped, and she realized her mistake. She turned her head over her shoulder. "I didn't mean it." 

He took his fingers out much to her dismay and roamed his hand along her slit. She groaned in annoyance. He licked his fingers until there were no juices left, adoring her sweet nectar. 

"Please finger me again. I promise I'll stay still." 

He shook his head. "I don't think I believe you, Nina." 

She huffed and sat up. He wasn't sure what she was doing until she falls down to her knees and grabs his dick firmly in her hand. He grunts at her sudden gesture and rest his arm behind the couch. Before he can get a word out, she sinks her mouth down onto him, managing to get all of him down her throat on the first try.

He lets out a moan and throws his head back. He grabs a fistful of her hair to hold back any loose strands. She peaked up at him as she bobbed her head on him and liked seeing him so vulnerable under her control. 

He slowly began to thrust his hips into her throat, completely letting her take the lead just this once. He rolled his eyes in the back of his head when he feels her suck harder, adding a little tongue in the process. 

He can tell she definitely has had previous experience with this before because there was no way in hell that an amateur could do the tricks she was pulling. He rest both of his hands on the back of her head and begins to fuck her face. 

She moans on him and lets him deepthroat her as she tries to match his pace. He looks down at her just to see she's already looking up at him. He saw how dark her eyes had gotten, and it was only turning him on more. 

He doesn't break eye contact as he thrusts into her throat a few more times. He releases her head, but she continued to jerk him off as she licked along his shaft. He really didn't want this bliss to end, but he has been yearning to fuck her senseless for a long time now. 

He removes her mouth from his shaft and lifts her chin up to face him. "Sit on my lap." 

She nods and crawls up into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. He grabs her hips and positions her right on his groin. She leaned down and began kissing on his neck. She rolled her hips on top of him, making him bury his fingers into her sides. 

He slides his member along her slit before slowly entering himself into her. She gasped as he took his time fully shoving himself inside. When he finally filled her completely, he began slowly bucking his hips so that she could get used to it. 

Her lips released his neck at the sensation, and her head rested on his shoulder. Both of his hands remained on her hips as he began forming a rhythm. He feels her starting to meet his hips in the middle, and though he liked it, she still wasn't following orders.

He stopped and slapped her cheek. "For fucks sake, what do I have to do to make you listen to me, huh?"

"I can't help it. You feel so good in me. I wanted more."

"You're so greedy."

He smirked as he surprised her by thrusting into her deeper, hitting her g-spot. She squealed at the action. 

"Is that what you wanted, huh?" He repeats his thrust again when she doesn't respond. "Answer me."

"F-fuck, yes please."

He spreads out his legs more so he had the perfect angle to hit the right spot every time. He began mercilessly piping into her with all of his strength. She becomes putty in his arms as she cusses and screams in pleasure while he pounds her relentlessly. 

He could tell he was successful in finding her cervix based off her reaction to every single thrust. She was clawing at his back leaving deep marks that would for sure make him bleed a bit later, but neither seemed to mind right now.

"Ride me."

She doesn't even think twice about moving her hips on him. He slowed down a little so that she could get situated. They both moan at the new pace. He smacks her ass as she bounces on his lap. 

She begins sucking on his neck again, causing him to grunt. He feels her body shaking against his and has an idea of what that implied. He smirked when a wicked idea to came to mind. 

He rolled them over so that they were in missionary. He angled her waist off the couch so he had a straight shot to her g-spot. She screamed, not caring how loud she was being. 

"Oh my god, Ricky yes!"

"Right there?"

She nodded. He plowed into her and began rubbing her clit knowing that'd quicken her orgasm. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head as her body begun quivering again. He felt her walls clinch on him and knew for a fact that she was about to climax. He sped up his fingers. 

"Ricky, I'm gonna cum!"

He smirks mischievously at her warning. He completely pulls out right as she was about to finish. She looked at him with both an annoyed and confused look as he got up from the couch. 

He contained his laughter as he looked at the bewildered woman laying out in front of him. He slipped his underwear back on.

"Wh-what're you doing?"

He smiles. "Getting dressed of course."

"B-but I didn't...and you didn't-"

"Finish? Yeah, I know." He slips into his slacks and grabs his shirt. 

"Why?"

"Because..." He walks up to her, ducks down so that their faces are almost touching, and lifts her chin up. "You disobeyed me Nina, now you must face the consequences." 

She couldn't believe what he just said to her. He smirks as he plants a kiss on her lips before walking over to his desk. 

She finally sat up from her spot and stared at him in disbelief. "Are you fucking serious right now?!"

He slides his arms through his shirt and glances up at her. "Serious as a heart attack." He checked his wrist watch and widened his eyes at the time. "Might want to get dressed. We have a meeting in thirty minutes." 

He plops down in his chair and gets back to work as if they didn't just fuck each other's brains out two minutes ago. She got dressed and glared at him as she walked to the exit.

"Nina."

"What?" She didn't even care that she came off as aggressive. 

He got up from his chair, walked up to her, and rested his hand on her hip. She felt a shiver go up her spine as he rubbed circles into her. 

He ducked his head so that his lips were near her ear. "Come here a little early tomorrow. There's something I want you to take a better look at. I think you might like it." 

Judging by his word choice, she had an idea of what exactly he wanted her to examine. "I'll be there."

"Perfect." He winks at her as he releases his grasp on her. He opens the door for her. "See you downstairs. Don't be late."

She blushed since he could've meant that in two different ways. "Uh yeah, see you."

She drags her feet as she makes her way back to her office. She lets out a sigh as she rewinds the past hour or however long she was in there. 

_What the actual fuck?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all have holy water near you cuz that's the only thing that'll wipe away the sin you just read. You can definitely tell I sampled the spanking scene from Secretary here if you've seen it.
> 
> What y'all think? Let me know!


	4. Dilemma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **There do be some sexy scenes in this one too, but it’s a lot tamer.**

"You're a real piece of work."

An angry Ricky and equally agitated Nini barged through the company's main entrance. These two have been at each other's throats for a solid month now, and the other employees are just expecting them to yell at each other at this point. 

Nini flared up her nose. "You're one to talk! You barely let me get a word in while we were discussing possible options for Natalie's album release date."

"You're aware you don't run this company, right?"

"You're aware you _literally_ hired me so that I could help you run this company, right?" 

Ashlyn claps her hands loudly to get their attention. 

"Hey guys, everything alright?"

"Everything is just peachy." Nini says sarcastically. 

"Everything is fine except the fact that Ms. Salazar-Roberts here doesn't know her place." 

She scoffs and lightly slaps his arm. "Excuse me, but I happen to know my position and know that I deserve an equal say in what goes on. Thank you very much." 

"You've got some nerve talking to your boss like that."

"Yeah well you're acting like an ass, so it was bound to happen at some point." 

They both walk into the elevator with a few other unlucky people that will have to witness them quarrel. 

"Nina, you've got to lay off on making me appear as the villain or incompetent of my title in front of customers."

"I'll stop when you stop ignoring my suggestions. You're not the only one with bright ideas you know." 

"Well, I always get the first say in things regardless. You're going to have to accept that."

The other three people in the elevator awkwardly stood as they overheard the duo's feud, but the pair was so caught up in one another that it was hard to tell if they even noticed there was a crowd. One of the bystanders gets off on the next floor, leaving the other two in this intense atmosphere. 

"Well, you're going to have to accept the fact that my ideas are actually good, and I'm even willing to bet that mine are superior." 

He clinches his jaw. "Oh, is that so?" 

She folds her arms confidently as she looks at him challengingly. "Yeah matter of fact, I _know_ my ideas are better." 

The other two employees knew it was about to escalate when she spat those fighting words. The second the elevator opened on the 19th floor, the other two practically ran out of there, having no desire to witness what was about to go down. 

They got stuck in a staring competition that was only interrupted by the ding noise that erupted throughout the small elevator when they arrived at their floor. 

Their breathing got louder, and their anger began to transition into lust as they scanned the other's face. Almost as if they could read each other's minds, they threw themselves into one another's arms. 

This had become the new norm for the pair. Whenever they'd get each other riled up, it tended to lead to them somehow ending up in his office or a secluded area to let out some steam. It was riveting, and the fact that it was a secret that they both knew could get them in some trouble made it all the hotter.

She hopped up and wrapped her legs around his hips. He held her with ease and began walking to his office. She tangled her hands in his curls as she kissed along his neck. 

"That smart mouth of yours is going to get you in some trouble one of these days."

She smirked against his skin. "Am I in trouble Mr. Bowen?"

"Oh yeah." He opens his door with his foot and sets her down on the ground. "A lot."

"Are you going to punish me?" 

He locks the door and puts a do not disturb sign on the handle. He tilts her chin up so that all of her attention was on him. "Go start the shower; I'll meet you in there." 

She tries to hide her excitement and nods her head. As she struts over to his bathroom, she begins stripping off her clothes. He licks his lips at the sight in front of him and felt a tightness in his pants. Both of them could tell this'll be a while. 

***

"Damn you America and your random overpriced shipping fees!" 

Ashlyn furiously scrolls through an app on her phone in the lounge area. Nini looked up from her home screen when she heard the ginger's sudden outburst.

"What're you looking at Ash?" 

"I'm looking at this dress store's prices so I can have an idea of what I wanna wear for the banquet in a few weeks." She shows Nini her screen. "I'm choosing between these two dresses and both of the shipping prices are horrendous. Which one do you think would look better?"

Nini stared at her confused as to what she banquet was referring to. "First of all, the blue one is stunning, and the extra fees aren't too bad. Second, what banquet are you talking about? Is it something for one of your clubs?"

At first, she thought the secretary was pulling her leg. By the look on her face, Ashlyn could tell Nini was genuinely out of the know. Ashlyn was shocked by Nini's words. "Wait, do you really not know?"

"Know about the banquet? No, why am I supposed to?"

Ashlyn gasped as she rested her phone on the table. "Um, yes! The Annual Autumn Ball is the biggest event for the SLC music industry. Everyone who is anyone comes every year to try to get new clients or new alliances. Everybody always dresses to the nines as if we were in some award show. It's truly something to behold. Did you seriously not hear about it?"

Nini shook her head as she leaned in further. "No, I haven't heard a singular peep. If it's this big, wouldn't Ricky tell me about it?"

Ashlyn connected the dots when she heard her boss' name. "Oh, now it all makes sense."

"How so?"

"Ricky _hates_ that ball. He doesn't think it's necessary, claiming it could have easily been a casual convention. Not shocking considering he's an introvert. I always try my best to hype it up, but he declines me every time."

"So he's not going?"

"Oh no, he's definitely gonna go. He goes every year; he just complains about it. He knows that he'd get more shit for not going by other record labels and potential clients if he doesn't make an appearance. So he sucks it up for a few hours."

"When is it exactly?"

"October 11. I can send you all the info if you'd like."

"I would, thanks Ash." 

"Of course! I can't wait to match with Red. We like to coordinate our outfits every year."

Nini smiles and makes an awe noise. "That's so adorable! I didn't know you could bring a date too."

Ashlyn nods. "It's not required, but it is strongly advised. For some reason, having someone on your arm makes you more approachable." 

"Noted."

Ashlyn rested her chin on her palm. "So, have any ideas on who you're gonna invite?"

Nini began choking on her drink, and her cheeks began warming up. "I um, well no actually. No one came to mind. I don't really know anybody that'd enjoy that event since it's just business."

Ashlyn makes a smug face. "How about Ricky? He's dateless every year, and you guys seem to somewhat get along when it's needed. Plus, Red said he thinks you two would make a great pair." She nudges Nini's arm playfully.

Nini laughed nervously. "I-I don't know where he got that idea from. Also, Ricky and I would rip each other's heads off. I mean, you saw us a few days ago screaming our heads off. If he went dateless then, he probably doesn't intend on changing his mind now."

Ashlyn shrugs, not really believing her. "I don't know Neens. He's kinda different around you, almost a whole other person."

Nini felt a little fear overcome her at what she could possibly be alluding to. She just hopes Ashlyn isn't implying she knows about their..."special meetings." It's not impossible since she admits that she wasn't exactly the quietist in bed. 

Nini cleared her throat and chipped anxiously at her nail polish. "Oh, what do you mean by that exactly?"

"Well, he just seems more open with you, and he actually takes your advice even though he gets agitated that you're right. Sure, it takes a yelling match or a passive aggressive conversation, but he still carries out your idea. Hell, he even lets you cuss at him and call him out on his bullshit without firing you. I can't even do that, and I've worked for him for five years. I've never seen him do that before, so it's gotta mean _something,_ right? You must be one special person."

Nini feels her ears heat up. Had he really been that different around her compared to others? She hasn't really paid any mind to how he speaks to other people, but maybe she should. Surely at least Big Red could get away with some of the things she's spat at him before. 

"I guess." 

Ashlyn could almost see the gears turning in her friend's head. "Just something to think about it." An alarm went off, signifying that lunch was over soon. "Welp, this has been nice. When you go dress shopping, send pics. I'd love to see it! See you later!"

Nini weakly waves at her friend as she returns to her desk. "Yeah, bye." Nini had a few more minutes for lunch, so she sat there alone thinking about this banquet and possibly being Ricky's date. Everything Ashlyn said did make sense, and Nini wasn't sure how to feel about it. She marks the event in her calendar and tries not to overthink.

***

Today they had a meeting with EJ Caswell who apparently was a big deal in the record labeling business. Any time she thinks of EJ, she can only think of that letter she purposely fucked up a month ago to piss off Ricky, and she knew she'd be distracted the whole meeting because of it.

Ricky and Nini had been patiently waiting in the meeting room a few floors down for him. 

"What all do I need to know about this guy?"

He shrugged. "Not much. He's a happy go lucky guy, womanizer, likes music. He's basically if a golden retriever were a person. You don't need to know much though since I'll be doing most of the talking anyway."

She mock salutes. "Whatever you say boss man." 

Soon after, the conference room door springs open and in comes a tall brunette man with crystal blue eyes. "Ricky Bowen, my man. How long has it been three, four weeks since I last saw you?" 

"I literally saw you last Tuesday." 

He laughed and rested a firm hand on Ricky's shoulder, making Ricky wince a little. "Sure pal, and who might this lovely lady beside you be?" 

Nini chuckled nervously. "Oh I'm Nina, his secretary. Nice to meet you." She holds her hand out for him to shake, but he kisses it instead. 

"Nina, huh? What a suiting name for a gorgeous woman like you. How on earth did you convince her to work for you Bowen?"

Ricky rolled his eyes. "Fate I guess." 

"Well if you ever get tired of him, there is always an open spot at my company for you." He winks at her and gives the back of her hand another kiss. Nini wasn't sure what to say to that.

Ricky glared at him and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Why don't we all sit and get this meeting over with?"

EJ finally let's go of Nini's hand, not seeming to notice the hostility in Ricky's voice. "Yes, of course."

Ricky guided Nini to her seat that was beside him and across from EJ. Nini had a hard time concentrating on the meeting when she couldn't take her eyes off of her boss. Lately, she couldn't rip her gaze from him.

On the other side of the table, EJ couldn't tear his eyes away from Nini. He found it hard to focus with such a beautiful work of art sitting in front of him. He didn't hesitate to compliment her when he had the chance. He barely remembers why he was even having this meeting.

Ricky was painfully aware of EJ's flirtatious looks, and it was internally driving him insane. He already wasn't too fond of the guy, and this was making him dislike him even more. He was tempted to ask if he should put a bag over her head in order for him to focus. 

When the meeting was over, they all stood from their chairs. EJ smiled. "Well, it was nice talking business with you as usual Bowen, and it was an honor to meet you Nina. I do hope to see you in future meetings." 

"Nice meeting you too. I'll just see my way out." She takes one last look at Ricky before leaving the room.

EJ turned to glance at Ricky. "So this Nina chick..."

Ricky groaned, already having an idea of where he was going with this. 

"Is she seeing anyone by any chance, or do you think I'm her type?"

Ricky didn't like discussing other people's romantic life. If he were being honest, talking about his secretary's personal life with someone he doesn't like sounds like a nightmare. 

"I don't know."

"Maybe I should ask her to the annual Autumn Ball in a few weeks. I've been looking for a date for that."

Ricky had totally forgotten about that event since he had been more occupied with other thoughts as of recently. "Good luck with that." He didn't mean that in the slightest, but it's not like he had a good enough reason to tell him not to pursue her that wouldn’t raise suspicion. He left the room before EJ said anything else. 

Ricky felt annoyance take over him at the thought of Nini dancing with EJ, and he got even more irritated when he didn't know why exactly he was so upset by the thought of EJ putting his hands on her. 

When he walks to the elevator, he sees her entering it. He quickly joins her on it and presses the 20th floor button.

Nini looks up at him. "He was nice."

Ricky scoffed. "Don't talk about him."

"What if I _want_ to talk about him?"

"Then I would tell you to stop."

"And if I don't?"

"I think you know what the consequences are."

"Hm no, I don't remember. Why don't you remind me?"

He stares at her for a moment before checking which floor they were on. When he sees it's only the fifth one, he turns back to her with a smirk.

He pushes her against the wall and hikes up her skirt. She lifts up her left leg and rested it on his hip as her arms wrapped around his neck. He rubs up and down her thigh before nibbling on her neck.

Her hand travels to his curls as she moans. His hand found its way between her legs and moved her underwear to the side. He rolled his thumb on her clit, causing her to fling her head back.

He smirks into her neck when he feels how wet she already was. He inserts his index and middle into her, which made her leg jerk.

"You know..." He starts before sucking a sensitive area on her neck. "I'm starting to think you _like_ resisting me." 

She moans a little louder when he curves his fingers so that it's deeper. Her fingernails dug into the back of his neck. She couldn't even respond due to her brain being distracted by him.

She yanked his curls to pull his head from her neck and smashed her lips onto his. He slipped his tongue into her mouth the moment their lips collided. They had been so in the moment that they didn't feel the elevator coming to a stop for another passenger.

When the elevator halts, Nini's head sprung up since she knew it was too soon to get off. She panicked when she saw it landed on the 10th floor and could tell the doors were gonna open.

"Shit!"

She hopped off Ricky and pushed him away. He quickly caught onto her gesture and both began dressing themselves. They straightened out the wrinkles on their clothes as much as they could.

Both stood beside each other and faced forward, trying to catch their breaths. Fortunately for them, the elevator had opened just when they were fully dressed. Two people walked in and gave them a nod of acknowledgment before turning away from the pair.

If the strangers noticed their flushed cheeks and irregular breathing, they didn't address it. When it felt safe enough to make eye contact again, Nini peaked over at her boss. She could see the nail marks on his neck and the clear bulge that was dying to be handled with.

He could see her staring in his peripheral vision and met her eyes. He couldn't help but notice the red hickey on her lower neck. Nini, feeling a little risky, trailed her hand to the tent in his pants. 

She could tell he tried not to make a sound as he tightly closed his eyes and bit the inside of his cheek. She smirked mischievously as she slowly snuck her hand into his pants, knowing she was in full control.

He rested his head back on the wall and firmly gripped onto the railing. He accidentally let out a monotoned groan, but the two strangers didn't seem to hear him. He brought her face towards his and lifted his right hand, which still had some of her juices on it, in front of her lips. 

She sucked on his fingers as she continued to massage him. Both of their pupils were dark with lust as they gazed into each other's eyes. He pulls his fingers from her mouth and brings her closer by the hips. They hear the elevator ding again and quickly jump away from each other.

The two strangers got off at the same time, completely unaware of the scene that was occurring behind them. They waited for the elevators to close to pounce on each other again. This time, Ricky was pinned against the wall as Nini stroked him. 

She grazed her finger over his tip, causing him to hiss. He craned his neck to finish what he started on her neck. 

"When we get upstairs..." He starts kissing a spot on her shoulder. "I want you to meet me in my office for a quick meeting."

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" She says in a snarky tone.

"Very much so."

She smirks. "That's too bad."

He furrows his brows and looks up at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean..." She takes her hand out of his pants and uses her clean hand to press the button to the 16th floor. "I have to meet Big Red for a mini conference in HR."

When the door slides open seconds later, Nini hops out of the elevator before he can resist. 

"Bye Mr. Bowen, oh and you might wanna get _that_ situated." She pointed to his hard on and evilly smirked as she walked off. This was payback for leaving her hot and bothered on his couch all those weeks ago, and damn did victory feel sweet.

He stood there in disbelief at her sudden gesture. He groaned as he roamed a hand on his face. It took everything in him not to cancel that meeting she had with Big Red, but he knew work came before one on one time with his secretary.

"Fucking hell Nina."

***

Ricky and Nini had been sitting quietly, working on their delegated tasks on Natalie's file late at night. The only noises that could be heard was outside traffic and the occasional sound of one of them shuffling papers or typing. Ricky had tunnel vision for the album information at hand while Nini had kept sneaking a few peaks at him.

As much as she didn't want to, she could not get Ashlyn's words out of her head from a week ago, and it was eating her inside. She still hasn't asked anyone to go with her yet. She tells herself it's because she couldn't find the time, but she knows that deep down it was something else or in her case _someone_ else.

She couldn't help but wonder what it'd be like to dance with Ricky in an elaborate dress surrounded by other well dressed people in the industry. She wondered if Ricky knew how to slow dance. He didn't seem like the dancing type, but surely he had at least gone to one school dance with a date before, right? 

She couldn't help but ponder on whether or not he'll break his streak of going dateless this year. He was the most unpredictable person she knows, so who knows what's up his sleeve?

He lets out a loud exhale. "Nina, I can literally feel your eyes boring into me. What's up?" 

Nini blushes at being caught and sits straight in her seat. "Oh, it's nothing. I just ended up drifting into la la land. I can be a little spacey sometimes." She says in her British accent.

He didn't seem like he bought her excuse, and she couldn't say she blamed him. He had known her long enough to know she does a stupid British accent when she lies. He just gives her a blank look. "Uh huh, well just try to stay focused. We can be done with this in the next hour and never have to worry about it again." 

"Yep, I'll get right on it sir." She awkwardly salutes him and cringes at her gesture. She ignores his eyes on her as she continued back to her work. 

He snuck a few glances at her to make sure she was okay since she seemed mousier and twitchier than usual, but he decides to not pester for now. Without a second thought, he rests his hand on the back of her hand and rubs his thumb on her soothingly. 

His sudden and out of character action makes her look at him. He did it as if it were second nature. She wasn't even sure if he was aware of what he was doing. Regardless, his kind gesture put a smile on her face and made her heart beat a little faster.

***

Nini was carrying a coffee cup holder as she entered the building. She made a friendly smile when she caught Ashlyn's eye at the front desk. She placed the beverages on the counter and took out one of the cappuccinos. 

"One grande cap for the lovely Ashlyn Caswell."

Ashlyn claps as she takes the drink from her hand. 

"Awe Neens, you didn't have to do this for me."

"Of course I did! Everyone needs a daily dose of caffeine in this company in order to stay awake."

"How much do I owe you?" She began reaching into her purse, but Nini halted her movements.

"It's on me." 

"You're too good for this world."

"Careful with those compliments; you don't want me to form a fathead." 

Ashlyn chuckles as she holds up her drink to her. 

"Cheers."

Nini grins and holds up her cup. "Cheers." 

They bump cups and sip on their coffees. The loud sound of a door opening came from the main entrance. Nini turned around and was surprised to see EJ Caswell approaching the front desk. She doesn't recall Ricky saying he had a meeting with him, so she wondered what he could be doing here.

"Well if it isn't my favorite younger cousin." 

Nini whipped her head back to Ashlyn. 

"Cousin?!"

Ashlyn nods at her friend before averting her attention to her cousin. "Hey EJ, what're you doing here? I wasn't supposed to see you until lunch time."

EJ stood beside Nini and rested his arms on the counter. "Yeah I know, but I had nothing better to do for the next hour and a half. Figured I could keep you company." He finally looked at the woman beside him and smiled brightly. "Nina, always a pleasure seeing you." He picked up her free hand and lightly kissed it. 

Nini's face became rosy. "It's nice to see you too."

"It must be my lucky day because I get to be surrounded by the two most beautiful women in this whole company."

Ashlyn rolled her eyes. "Stop flirting with my friend."

"Hey, you can't blame a man for trying. I mean, when you're in the presence of someone this drop dead gorgeous, you have to at least shoot your shot." 

Nini pushed some hair behind her ear. "You're far too sweet." 

Ashlyn groaned. "Ugh, I'm going to the ladies room. I can't stand when he flirts in front of me. Just smack him upside the head if he gets on your nerves Neens." 

Nini snickers and gives her a thumbs up while he scowls at his cousin. "Good to know." 

When Ashlyn leaves them be, EJ took a step closer to the secretary. "You know, I'd be lying if I said I only came here early just to see my cousin."

Nini tilted her head. "Oh?"

"Yeah you see, I may or may not have had an ulterior motive to possibly bump into you." 

"Me?" She pointed at her chest.

He chuckles. "Yes, you. I couldn't get you off my mind ever since we met a while back. I was wondering if maybe you'd like to be my date for the Autumn Ball I'm sure you're aware of."

Nini was both taken aback and delighted to be asked by such a major contender to the SLC music industry. "What made you want to bring me? Certainly someone else would be a better option since I have no experience with this event." 

"I didn't really want to ask anyone else, and I'd love to be the first to show you around. That ball can be overwhelming if you don't know who to talk to. So what do you think?" 

She taps her chin."Well, I think I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one."

He smiles and nods."That's fine. Just let me know at least two weeks prior so we can plan accordingly." He takes out his business card and hands it to her. "That's my number. I'll definitely be waiting for your call." He gives her a flirtatious wink, making her giggle.

She feels her phone vibrate the jingle she had designated for Ricky. "Oh, that's my boss. I should get going, but I'll try to let you know by the end of the week." 

"Perfect." He kissed the back of her hand again and smiles. "I can't wait to see you again."

Nini laughs awkwardly. "Yeah, you too." She waves at him as she quickly makes her way to the elevator. Her heart was beating out of her chest. She couldn't believe that just happened. 

She knew that saying yes to him right then and there technically would have been a nice solution to her searching for a date, but she had a feeling in her chest telling her it wasn't time to answer. Her gut feeling hasn't failed her yet, so she listened. 

She enters Ricky's office and sits in the chair across from him. "You called, sir?" 

"Yeah," He took the coffee from the holder. "I needed you to take a look at this file on Howie to make sure it's correct before you leave today." He slides the manila folder to her. 

"I'll jump right on it." 

She contradicts her own words by remaining put in her spot. She began thinking about the ball again and was trying to find some way to casually bring it up to him. She knew he _despised_ EJ and imagined he'd be pressed when he finds out he asked her.

"Is there anything you need Nina?" 

Nini anxiously tapped on her leg. "Um, actually yeah there is." 

He directs all his attention to her. She exhales deeply. She couldn't really beat around the bush, so she decided to just rip the band-aid off.

"Why didn't you tell me about the Autumn Ball? Ashlyn said it was a major event."

He rolled his eyes and slumped down into his chair. 

"Dammit Ashlyn." 

"Were you just not gonna tell me about it ever?"

"I figured you would find out eventually. Only one person from a record label really needs to show up, so I didn't find it relevant enough to bring up."

"Ashlyn said they'd give you shit for not coming though."

"She'd be correct."

"So you are going?"

"I'm gonna be there for one hour and bail. That's why I didn't talk about it." 

Nini nods in understanding. She wasn't upset about it as much anymore since that did all technically make sense. 

"You don't have to worry about all that. You can just-”

"I'm going." She interrupts.

He stares at her like she grew another head. 

"What?"

"I said I'm going." 

"Why would you wanna go to some silly event if you don't have to? Seems like a waste of a Saturday night."

She shrugs. "Why the hell not? I've never been to it. Who knows? I might even enjoy myself." 

He scoffs. "I promise you it's not the fantasy land Ashlyn probably painted in your head." 

"Only one way to find out if that's true."

"If you're gonna go, you should probably know that they'll get on your ass for going dateless. They do it to me every year." 

She avoids eye contact with him. He squints when he noticed her odd behavior; she only does that when she's not telling him something. He frowns when he puts two and two together. "You've been asked." He says as a statement, not a question.

"Maybe."

She can't tell what emotion he was conveying as he stared at her intently.

"Oh."

He doesn't say anything else, so she assumed their conversation was over. She grabbed the file and got up from her seat. 

"Who is it?" He says with an odd look in his eyes she wasn't familiar with. 

She freezes, not expecting him to ask. "Um, I don't think I should say." 

He clinches his jaw. "Fine, I guess I'll see you there."

"I guess you will." 

Call her crazy, but she almost sensed a little envy from his tone. She gives him a final look over before leaving his office.

She had a weird, unexplainable feeling in her gut. She wasn't doing anything wrong by deciding to go with EJ, but it felt like she was doing something dirty. Almost like a betrayal, which was ridiculous. 

She shoots EJ a quick text saying she'd be happy to go before she can convince herself not to. It's not like Ricky planned on asking her in the first place, so nothing was holding her back. She sighs and focuses her energy on Howie's file to block out the rapidly growing noise in her head.

***

"What about this one Neens?"

Gina held up a long dark green mermaid dress that fell to the ground. Gina and Nini had gone dress shopping a few days after Nini said yes to EJ.

Nini grimaces at the monstrosity of a dress Gina picked up. She was almost offended she even suggested it. "Hell no! Also, I already told you it has to be a little classy with no flashy colors." 

"Oh right I forgot, sorry." She placed the horrid dress back on the rack and began scanning through the aisles. "So tell me a little about this EJ guy again. You really haven't said anything about him except that he's taking you." 

Nini makes a poker face as she shrugs. "I mean, there's not too much to say. We haven't spoken a lot in person, only through a few texts regarding the banquet. He's a flirtatious, seemingly harmless guy who owns a rivaling company to the record label I work for. He also happens to be my friend's cousin, and my boss loathes him."

That last line caught Gina's attention. "Why does your boss hate him? Did he do something?"

Nini shakes her head. "I have no clue. He never told me, and I'm a little afraid to ask."

"Wow, he must've thrown a hissy fit when he found out his secretary was going to be his rival's date."

Nini looked down in shame. Gina looked at her when she suddenly went silent. "He does know, right?"

"Well, he knows someone asked. He just doesn't know who it is." 

Gina made a bemused expression. "Nini! You have to tell him eventually! Isn't he gonna be at the event?"

"Yeah..."

"He's gonna be so pissed. I hope he doesn't show out when he sees you two."

Nini gives her finger guns. "You and I both."

"Well, good luck with that. I can't wait to hear how that plays out." 

"I definitely _can_ wait." 

Much to Nini's relief, Gina changes the subject back to dresses. Gina makes an excited face when she spots a dress. "Oh my god, Neens you gotta check this one out!"

Nini walked to where Gina was and gasped when she saw the gorgeous dress she had chosen. 

"Oh wow." 

She grazed her thumb over the material delicately. It was a metallic gray dress with sparkles. The large slit in the chest area and left leg were a little risky for business, but she was too enchanted by its beauty to mind at the moment.

"Well, what're you waiting for? Go try it on!"

Nini picks up the dress and scurries to the dressing room. She carefully stepped into the dress and patted it down when it was fully on her. When she saw herself in the mirror, she almost didn't recognize herself. 

This was nothing she would have normally worn, but she wanted her first Autumn Ball to be special. Also, she finally has a hefty enough paycheck to afford something this extravagant. 

When she steps out, Gina's eyes twinkled at the sight of her. "Oh my god, Neens! You look so beautiful. There's no need to search any longer. Please tell me you're getting it!"

"You really think it's the one?"

Gina nods enthusiastically. "Of course, no dress anywhere in Salt Lake could measure up to that one. It's your destiny. EJ's jaw will drop when he sees you." 

Nini's full grin falls into a smaller one at the sound of EJ's name. That same annoying feeling of betrayal tends to come back to her when he's mentioned, but she shakes her head to get rid of any negative thoughts. 

"Yeah, you know what? I'm gonna get it."

"Eek, I'm so excited to see how you look in the full get-up! Kourt is gonna freak when she sees it." 

Gina begins typing away to who Nini assumes must be Kourtney. Nini returns to the dressing room and looks herself over in the mirror again. As much as she wanted to refute it, deep down she hoped she'd catch a certain curly headed man's attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have based EJ and Ricky's relationship off of BoJack Horseman and Mr. Peanutbutter. 
> 
> Lmk what you think! Next chapter will be quite eventful. 
> 
> Btw, Nini's dress is the one Zendaya wore in _Malcolm and Marie._


	5. Eat Your Heart Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **There is a smut scene! Enjoy you little pervs ;)**

Nini walked into his office at her usual time with coffee in one hand and his dry cleaning in the other. She was shocked to see her boss sitting on his desk staring daggers into her soul. It was almost as if he was waiting for her.

"You're late."

Nini scrunched her brows as she checked her phone. 

"I'm actually five minutes early."

"Same difference."

"Is it though?"

He rolled his eyes and signaled for her to come to him. He takes his belongings from her and carelessly placed it on his desk. 

"I need you to run a few errands today."

"But the schedule is already packed. I don't think I could squeeze in any extra runs." 

"Then postpone it or have a reliable person do it for you. What I'm having you do is more important." He hands her a to do list. "Have all these done by the end of the day."

Her eyes expanded so much she was surprised they didn't fall out of her head when she saw some of the chores on the list. This would take hours to complete. She's not even sure if she'd be able to stop for lunch. 

"I'm sorry, but what exactly is your definition of a few errands?!"

"Is it going to be a problem?"

"I mean, they're not hard tasks just really time consuming."

"I trust you'll find a way to get it done. You always do. It's your specialty."

She's sure that's the closest he's gotten to complimenting her at least that she's aware of. 

"Well, you probably don't want to stand around lollygagging when time is precious today."

She sighs in defeat and gives him a fake smile as a bye before leaving his office. She groans when she sees the first item on the list since the place was across town. This was going to be a _very_ long day. 

It's well into the evening until she finally gets to the last two tasks of the day. She had been put on a wild goose chase all across the Salt Lake region. If she were being honest, some of the errands she had to complete seemed meaningless or irrelevant.

She was currently scrolling through Google maps trying to find the second to last destination he had on the list. She for the life of her couldn't find this damn place, and she swore she was about to go insane. She had been searching for it for 10 minutes now, wondering if she managed to somehow miss it every time. 

As she was pressing the search bar for the hundredth time, Kourtney's contact photo appeared on her screen, signaling she was calling. Nini pressed the answer button.

"Hey Kourt, everything alright? You usually don't call around this time."

"Oh yeah, I'm good. I was just calling to ask if we're still hitting up the bar with Gina again."

"Wouldn't miss it, especially after the hectic day I just had."

"Uh oh, what looney task did Ricky have you do this time? Fly an airplane? Hotwire a car?" She jokes. 

Nini chuckles under her breath. "No, but I wouldn't be shocked if he ever asked me to do either of those things one of these days. He just sent me on an extreme quest of complex chores. Right now, I'm trying to find a place he had on his list."

"Oo, maybe I can help since I'm more familiar with SLC! What's the place called?"

"Some record label named the Sonic Boom. It's M.I.A. everywhere I've looked. I feel like I'm looking for some place that doesn't exist like the fucking fountain of youth or something." 

"Wait, did you say the Sonic Boom?"

Nini noticed the confusion in her friend's voice. 

"Yeah..."

"Uh Neens, you can't find it because that label doesn't exist anymore."

Nini raises a brow. "What?! That's impossible."

"It's true! They were bought by a bigger company like two years ago. Only reason I know about it is because one of my fav underground artists was talking about it on their live."

Nini went silent as she tried to make sense of this all. She glimpsed over the list in front of her and began to pick up on the bizarreness of it all. Some of these places took her forever to find or were far away, but this was the first one that was straight up nonexistent. 

That's when it hit her. He did this on purpose, but why? 

"Motherfucker."

"What?"

"Not you Kourt, sorry I gotta go. I'll see you later. Thanks for the help."

She doesn't wait for a response as she ends the call and aggressively shoves her phone in her pocket. She hops in her car and tosses the list on the passenger's seat. He was about to get a mouthful from her.

Nini barges into his office late in the evening, startling him in the process. 

_"Fuck. You."_

"Excuse me?!"

"Oh, don't act like you don't know." She held up the list. "Wanna explain this bullshit to me?"

"What's there to talk about?"

She humorlessly laughs. "Oh gee, I don't know. How about the fact that you sent me on some difficult quest to do random shit that honestly wasn't all that important? On top of that, the second to last place on the list doesn't even fucking exist! Care to explain that Ricky?!"

"Oh yeah, totally forgot the Sonic Boom was bought out. My mistake." He makes that same challenging look she's grown far too used to, which indicated he knew _exactly_ what he was doing.

"Horseshit!"

He taps his cheek. "Something tells me you're angry with me." 

"Angry?! No, I'm more than that _Richard._ I'm _fuming._ Why did you feel the need to do this? I didn't do anything to piss you off recently, did I?!" 

He gets up from his seat and stands on the side of his desk. He stares at her with this peculiar look that she could only explain as...begrudging? She analyzes his awkward body language. He was tenser than usual, and she can almost see the vulnerability in his eyes. She replays the last week or so to try to understand where this passive aggression stemmed from.

Then a certain 6 foot tall blue eyed man came to mind, and everything was suddenly coming together.

She smirks knowingly and lets out a huff. "I never thought I'd see the day."

Her vague outburst catches him off guard. "Pardon?"

Nini begins walking up to him. "It all adds up." 

He raises a brow. "What?"

She folds her arms. "You were punishing me."

"Nonsense." His voice cracks a bit. 

"I cannot believe _the_ Ricky Bowen is jealous."

He contorts his face. "Don't know where you'd get that idea from."

She scoffs. "Oh please, admit it. You're mad that I have a date, and it's not you."

The room goes quiet as she waited for his response. She struts towards him until there is close to no space in between them. He begins to tap on his desk as he tried to maintain eye contact with her. She's never seen him fidget before, and she thinks that this may be the first time that he's ever shown a sign of nervousness in front of her.

When she realized he wasn't going to say anything, her smirk grew wider. His refusal to answer only confirmed her theory. She pulled on his tie and brought his face down so that it was inches apart from hers without breaking eye contact. 

"I'm going to that ball with someone else whether you like it or not. If that bothers you, then boo hoo. But I'll be damned if I let you walk all over me because you're angry with yourself. And I don't know about you, but I'm gonna be dancing wearing the most show stopping dress with another man's arms wrapped around my waist. And there's nothing you can do about it." 

The room went silent again as they intensely stared at each other. Nini caught him flick his eyes down to her lips, and she admits the temptation to close the distance between their lips was there. But she didn't want to give him that satisfaction, so she released his tie and took a step back from him before her lustful desires could overcome her.

"I'm going home."

She begins to walk away but was stopped when she felt his hand gently grip her wrist. She meets his eye and waits for him to speak. She can tell by the look on his face that he was having an internal battle.

"What is it?"

He opens his mouth and closes it, letting the words get stuck in his throat. She waits patiently for him to say something, literally anything, but he remains silent. Whenever she realized he wasn't able to speak his mind, she sighed.

"Goodnight Ricky."

And on that note, she shook her hand from his light grasp and left for the night, wondering what he was struggling to say.

***

Nini was good at many things, and one of those talents was her ability to hide her true emotions in front of her friends. 

Nini had known Kourtney and Gina would wanna be there while she got dressed so they could see what the final results were and to meet this mystery guy they haven't seen yet. Kourtney had been doing the final touches on her hair while Gina sat beside Nini as they gazed into the mirror. 

"Nini, you literally look like some femme fatale or something." Gina says.

"Thank you?" 

"Yeah, you do look gorgeous, and you'll only look ten times better if this damn curling iron will work with me." Kourtney states as she swirls the iron on her hair. "So Neens, do you think that if this night goes well, you'd consider pursuing this EJ dude?" 

Nini felt her heart drop at the abrupt question.

"Oh wow um, I don't know. I haven't thought of that."

"Well if you do decide to date him, I heard of this trick from _This is Us_ that apparently always works if the guy is interested in you. What you do is leave any belonging of your choice in his car or somewhere you know he'll see it so it gives him an excuse to come and talk to you. I call it the Cinderella effect." Gina suggests. 

Nini smiles. "That's actually pretty cute. I'll keep that in mind."

Kourtney beams as she marveled at her work.

"All done!"

Nini glanced at her full outfit and was impressed with her friend's art. "I don't even look like the same person! Thank you Kourt!" She wraps her arms around Kourtney's neck. 

"Anything for you Neens."

Nini lets go and walks up to her vanity mirror.

"All it needs is one final touch." 

She takes out her favorite lucky earrings she received from her moms as a birthday gift many years ago. Good things always happened when she wore them, and she hoped it'd bring her luck tonight. She slides them on and smiles at herself. 

"Now I'm perfect."

Nini feels her phone vibrate and sees it's EJ telling her that he's outside. 

"He's here!"

The two women squealed in excitement since they finally got to meet this dude. The women helped her outside since she failed to do a practice round in her new heels. All the girls gasped when they saw EJ. There he stood in a matching metallic tuxedo with a limo waiting for them.

"Girl I haven't even met him, and I'm already in love." Kourtney says.

Gina nods. "Yeah if you don't want him, I'm very much single."

Nini snickers and rolls her eyes. "God, you guys are so thirsty."

Gina shrugs. "And unashamed." 

EJ smiles when he sees his date and walks up to her. 

"Nina, you look absolutely stunning tonight. And who might these lovely ladies be?"

"Thank you! And this is Gina and Kourtney, my best friends."

EJ took both of their hands and kissed the back of it. 

"I should've known a woman as beautiful as Nina would have just as gorgeous friends."

Kourtney and Gina began giggling and blushing like schoolgirls. 

"Neens, you better get in that limo before I hit on your date." Kourtney jokingly warns.

"Alright, we should probably go before my friends jump on you."

He chuckles. "As you wish milady. Nice meeting you two!"

He locks arms with Nini and walks her to their ride.

"Trust me, the pleasure was all ours!" Kourtney yells as they enter the limo.

The ride over was spent in comfortable silence. EJ had his arm wrapped around Nini's shoulder while she admired the scenery outside. When she sees a large building with people dressed in fancy attire, she knew that they arrived. 

She stuck her hands on the window as if she were a kid seeing Disney World for the first time. When the limo parked, the driver opened the door on EJ's side for the both of them. EJ held his hand out for her and helped her out of the vehicle.

Nini's mouth gaped at the venue. It looked like some place someone from _Sex and the City_ or _Gossip Girl_ would go to for some event. She never in her life thought she'd be able to experience this, but here she is. Success feels nice. 

"Shall we go in?" He offers his arm for her.

She smiles and slides her arm in his. "We shall."

He helps her up the stairs to the entrance. The second she stepped foot in the building, she was in awe. Ashlyn had been right about the fantasy style of it. It looked like a princess castle on the inside with the elegantly dressed servers, classical music played by a live band at the front, and a chocolate fountain. 

"Wow..."

EJ laughs at her reaction. "Beautiful isn't it?"

"Beautiful? Please, that word doesn't even do this place justice."

"Why don't we go to our table? I'm sure there are some people that would love to meet you."

"Sure!" She spots a server walk in front of them with a platter of cheese and sneaks one before anyone notices as he guides them to their seats.

~

Ricky has been here for a solid thirty minutes, and he already wanted to vanish. Any other year he would've done just that, but this time he was motivated to stay. Ricky had been on his third glass of champagne sitting at his table. He found himself eyeing the main entrance every five minutes or so.

He would feel his heartbeat quicken when he saw a short woman with raven hair but would immediately become disappointed when it wasn't who he thought it was. 

"I've never seen you like this."

The sound of his best friend's voice shakes him up a bit since he had totally forgotten he wasn't alone at this table. He takes a larger sip of his champagne.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. I guess you kinda look like you're waiting for somebody."

Ricky turns his face away from Red when he feels the blush rising on his cheeks. "I don't know what you're going on about."

Red tried to peek at his face and smirked when he saw the rosiness. "You little liar. You _are_ waiting for someone! You didn't have a date did you?"

"You know I don't do dates."

"Then who're you looking for?"

Ricky goes silent as he stared down at the table and began tapping on his glass. Red was trying to think of a person he'd possibly be longing for like this until a certain secretary appeared in his head.

"Nini."

Ricky jumped at the sound of her name. He stared at Red as if he had been caught doing something bad.

"What?"

"It's Nini isn't it?"

Ricky's cheeks warm up. "I-I don't..." He doesn't even know where he was going with that sentence.

Red smirks and rests a hand on Ricky's shoulder. 

"You know she's here with someone else, right?"

Ricky slumps down in his seat. "Yes Red, I'm aware. Thank you."

"And you're cool with that?"

"She's capable of making her own decisions. She can dance with anyone she pleases. It's completely fine by me."

"Anyone?"

"Sure, why not?"

"No, like _anyone_?"

"Yes, _anyone_."

"Well, I hope you don't take back your word."

Ricky squints his eyes suspiciously. "Why do you say that?"

"Rhetorically speaking, what if I told you that she came here with someone you don't exactly like?"

Ricky sat up straight and leaned towards his friend. 

"Red, what're you trying to tell me?"

Red made a poker face. "Well, Nini may or may not have come with someone who happens to be cousins with my girlfriend and also owns a record label." Red awkwardly grins.

Ricky's eyes widened when he put the pieces together. "You don't mean..."

"Yeah, I do mean." Red looks ahead and gestures towards a group of people on the opposite side of the room. Ricky didn't believe his eyes. There stood Nini surrounded by a bunch of people he didn't recognize, which isn't the part that irritated him. 

EJ Caswell had an arm wrapped around her waist while she rested her head on his torso. He had ducked down to whisper into her ear, and Ricky guessed it had to have been a joke by the way she was giggling. It made him sick. 

Ricky downed the rest of his drink and got up from his seat. Red was alarmed by his friend's menacing scowl. "Woah buddy, you're not gonna do anything stupid, right?"

Ricky didn't take his eyes off the scene in front of him. "I'll see you later Red; I think I need some air." Ricky stormed off before Red could interrogate him any further.

"You didn't answer the question!"

~

Nini had been having the time of her life. The people EJ introduced her to had all been lovely; a lot of them even complimented her dress. She even got to speak to a few of her coworkers. She was currently surrounded by some of the upcoming stars, trying her best to tune in. But it was hard to ignore a certain someone's absence.

She found it odd that she hadn't seen her boss at all tonight despite her being there for an hour. She wonders if he ever even bothered to show up. 

"Nina?"

She snaps out of her thoughts when she hears someone from the circle's voice. "Hm?"

"Did you hear me?" 

"No, sorry."

"I asked who do you work for?"

"I work for Ricky Bowen."

"Oh I know him! Not the talkative kind at all. You know, I don't recall seeing him tonight. Is he here?"

Nini shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine."

EJ perks up when he sees a familiar face approaching. "Well I'll be damned, right when we were talking about him he decides to show up."

Nini froze when she spots Ricky scooting his way into the circle and walking towards them. She's almost too afraid to look him in the eye, knowing that he would most definitely be giving her a look of disapproval. 

EJ swung an arm around Ricky's shoulder, and Nini didn't even have to look to know Ricky was giving him a death glare. 

"Guys, this is a good friend of mine and my competition Ricky Bowen. Ricky, this is everyone."

Ricky gives them all a curt nod of acknowledgment before shaking EJ's arm off. Ricky gazes at the girl under his rival's arms and noticed she refused to meet his eye. 

EJ, being the unheeding person he is, did not pick up on either of the two's moods. "Obviously, you know my lovely date Nina."

"So nice to finally bump into you Nina."

She gives him an uncomfortable smile that she knew he'd see right through. 

"Doesn't she look amazing tonight? I haven't been able to keep my eyes off of her. Like come on, look at her."

EJ takes her hand and twirls her around before pulling him back to his chest. Ricky clinched his jaw and shoved his hands in his pockets. 

"Yeah, I've been looking."

That piques her interest. "You have?"

He nods. "Yeah it's hard to miss you, especially when you're standing next to someone whose blazer is louder than his voice."

EJ laughs wholeheartedly and slaps Ricky's back, not registering that Ricky's words were back handed. Nini scowled at him for his rude remark.

"Man this guy always cracks me up when he roast me. It's kinda our thing."

"It's really not."

"There he goes with his jokes again."

Ricky finally accepts that there was no possible way to get through to this bonehead. "Okay Caswell." He turns his attention back to his secretary. "So Nina, you didn't tell me you planned on coming with Caswell here." Ricky says in a mock friendly tone.

Nini put on a fake smile. "Well with all do respect sir, it was really none of your business."

"Maybe, but it would've been nice to know that you were coming with him of all people."

"Well now you know." She snaps.

They got into one of their infamous stare downs. The people around them didn't seem to pick up on their hostility, which was probably for the best.

The band began to play a song that EJ recognized. He beams and faces Nini. "May I have this dance?"

She briefly looked at Ricky before nodding and taking EJ's hand. 

"I'd love to."

She bumped her arm against Ricky as EJ led them to the dance floor. Nini looked over her shoulder to get one last glimpse of her boss and wasn't too surprised to see he was already looking.

EJ placed his palms on the small of her back while Nini's arms were wrapped around his neck. EJ began rocking them side to side, resting his head on top of hers. Nini, feeling a little vindictive, decided to avert her eyes towards Ricky to make sure he was watching. 

She knew he'd be watching from the sidelines with an infuriating expression on his face. She didn't break her eye contact with Ricky as she grabbed EJ's hands and slowly pushed them down to her ass. 

EJ smirked. "Feeling risky tonight?" 

"Yeah," She gives Ricky a nasty look. "Something like that." 

Ricky's face was green with envy, and a sadistic part of her liked watching him become filled with rage. Ricky rolls his eyes at her and flees from the vile scene.

A little bit later in the evening, EJ and Nini were talking amongst themselves until he politely excuses himself to speak to an old friend, leaving her alone. Her adventurous side kicked in, so she decided to galivant around the areas she hasn't seen yet while she waited. 

As she was eyeing some old painting, she hears footsteps coming from behind her. She doesn't even have to face them to know who they belonged to, becoming familiar with them over the months.

"I had a feeling you'd find me." She turns on her heel and meets Ricky's intense gaze. "What're you still doing here anyways? Didn't you say you were gonna leave after an hour?"

"I wanted to stay."

"Why?"

"Because."

"That's not an answer."

"Something may have caught my attention."

"And that something is..."

He takes a few steps closer to her and lightly holds her chin up. "That something may or may not be a person." 

"That person must be really special to make you want to stick around." 

He bites his lip. "Yeah." He trails his hand down from her chin down to the large slit in the chest area of her dress. "Very special." 

She finds herself coming closer to him and staring at his lips. She doesn't have to glance at him to know that he's doing the same thing too. She rubs her hand down his abdomen until she's right above his belt line. 

The moment their eyes met, they both knew they wanted it. He picks her up from the front and pins her against the closest wall. He latches his lips onto her neck, causing her to tighten her legs around his waist. 

She let out a low moan as he aggressively sucked onto her neck, knowing damn well it'll bruise in a few minutes and that she wouldn't be able to cover it. She's sure he's doing it on purpose as a 'fuck you' to EJ, but she couldn't find it in herself to care right now. 

"Gee Ricky, what made you so animalistic all of the sudden?" She taunts. 

"You knew damn well what you were doing in there." He murmurs against her neck. 

She smirks as she grasps onto his hair. "No idea what you're talking about." 

"Don't play innocent Nina." He begins shifting his lips to her shoulder. "You showed up dressed like _this_ with someone I loathe knowing it'd get a rise out of me. Didn't you?"

"You have no evidence to back that accusation up." 

He slithers his hand under the fabric covering her bare breast and twist her nipple, making her squeal. He detaches his mouth from her shoulder and sets her down on the ground. He gets on his knees and pushes her legs apart.

He got under her dress and started to kiss up her leg until he reached her thong. He moved the lingerie to the side and rested his tongue on her clit. The motion makes her fling her head back and pull at his curls. 

He cupped one of her breast as he went down on her knowing she loved when he did that. She tried her best not to be too loud, but he was making it impossible when he kept licking the right spots. 

"Ricky, holy fuck."

He began flicking his tongue on her as he inserted two digits into her. He felt the familiar tightness he gets in his pants when he sees her in this state. He loved hearing her moan uncontrollably like she does on his desk, couch, and shower, so he quickens his pace with his fingers. 

He didn't even care that there was a strong possibility that someone could easily walk in and see them. All that matters is the woman currently dripping down on his fingers in front of him. However he did know that EJ would eventually come looking for her, so he was going to cherish the time he has with her tonight. 

He gives her a few more licks before standing up and taking out both of her breast from the dress. He gropes them both and takes turns sucking on them. As he did that, she grew impatient with how slow he had been to remove his own clothes.

She swiftly undid his pants and slipped her hands into his briefs. He moans as he sucks on her mounds at the feeling of her stroking him. 

He released her breasts and lifted her back on his hips. He gently put his forehead on top of hers as she aligned himself with her hole. He steadily pushed her down onto his shaft, enjoying the sensation of her squeezing around him. 

Both let out a blissful sigh when he finally shoves all of him in her. He begins rocking into her at a slower pace than he usually does, but she wasn't complaining. She dug her nails into his back as she kissed his neck. 

He buried his face in the crook of her neck. "Fuck Nina, you're so hot." 

She's glad he couldn't see her face because his word made her blush. He started speeding up his thrusts, resulting in the both of them moaning louder. He lifts his head from her neck, wanting to see her face.

"Look at me." 

She disconnects her lips from his pulse point and meets his eye. He rested his head against hers as their lips were inches away from touching. He exited her and shoved himself back into her, hitting her sweet spot in the process.

She covers her mouth to block out the noise she made. The sight of her completely losing her mind as he plowed into her pleased him immensely. His thrusts got sloppier and more aggressive as he watched her try to muffle her lustful cries. 

She formed that same face she makes whenever she's about to come undone.

"Ricky..."

"I know." He places his thumb on her clit and rolls it in circles as he fucked her against the wall. "Cum for me." 

Her body quivered as she suppressed the scream of pleasure she desperately wanted to unveil. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she clawed at his back. She finally creamed down on his shaft, letting out a loud exhale in replacement for a scream. 

He continued to rub her off to carry out her orgasm. Soon after, he felt himself about to combust. He pulls out of her and jerks himself off. When she sees what he's doing, she drops down to her knees and stuffs her mouth full of him. 

He held onto the wall and took a handful of her hair as she sucked and swallowed him. When he finally released himself, she slowly slid her lips off of him, making a popping noise. She wiped her lips and sat up straight.

They both got dressed in silence and tried their best to fix up their appearances so it wasn't too obvious to others as to what they just did. 

She pulled out her lipstick and began reapplying it. "You know Ricky..." She puckers her freshly coated lips. "If you wanted to take me, all you had to do was ask." 

He sighs and scratches the back of his neck. "Well, would you have said yes?"

She stops her movements and looks up at him. He patiently waited for her answer. As she was about to respond, the annoying sound of EJ Caswell's voice could be heard from down the hall.

Ricky roamed his palm down his face in frustration because of course EJ wants to intervene now of all times. 

"Nina, there you are! I've been looking all over for you."

He jogs up to them and wrapped an arm around her. He makes a friendly grin towards Ricky. "Ricky, what're you still doing here? I thought you were long gone. I guess I should've known she'd be with you. Hey, you're not gonna be my competition are ya?" He nudges Ricky's arm while Nini awkwardly chuckled.

"No. Matter of fact, I don't think there's any competition at all."

Nini was just glad EJ was incapable of picking up on sarcasm and crude remarks.

"Oh, you know I'm just pulling your strings Bowen. You don't mind if I steal her away for a bit, do you?"

He shakes his head. "She's all yours. I was gonna head out anyways." He looks back at her. "Nina, nice chatting with you as always."

Nini feels her face heating up. "Uh yeah, you too."

"Have a good night you two."

Ricky gives Nini a small smile before leaving them be. Nini watched him walk away until he was completely out of sight.

"What's that near your neck?" EJ pointed at her collarbone.

Nini looked at it and blushed when she noticed she had a fresh hickey courtesy of Ricky. 

"Birthmark."

"Really? Huh, guess I didn't notice. Wanna dance?"

She internally relaxes when he accepts her excuse so easily. God bless this man's obliviousness.

"Sure, let me just rest for a minute. I'm a little exhausted after that talk."

***

The following week, the building had been discussing the banquet non-stop. Everyone thought this year was the best they've had so far, and they also couldn't help bringing up the fact that Ricky stayed an extra few hours for some unknown reason.

(Nini would become jittery anytime someone mentions it).

At the moment, she had been working in her office when she hears a knock on her door. She was shocked to see EJ Caswell with a large bouquet of flowers in his hand.

"EJ, what're you doing here?"

"Hey Nina, sorry to barge in like this. Ashlyn said you wouldn't be too busy right now."

"It's fine; you just surprised me that's all. Are those daisies for me?"

"Yep! Something told me you were into flowers. Do you mind?"

"Not at all. Thank you, this was very sweet of you." She places them on the desk and gives him a platonic kiss on the cheek. "I'm assuming you didn't come all this way just to give me flowers."

He nodded. "You'd be correct. I actually wanted to ask you something."

"What's up?"

"I had a lot of fun with you last weekend and was wondering if maybe you'd wanna go on an official date with me."

She was taken aback by him for the second time already. "Date? Like a dinner date?"

"Yeah, you know. I come and pick you up from your place, we go to some fancy restaurant of your choosing, and get to know each other better. The whole cliché." 

"I mean, I guess we could try."

EJ's face lights up. "Great, I'll call you later so we can decide where to go."

"It's a date."

"I'm sure I'm interrupting your work-"

"You sure are." A deep voice says behind him.

EJ and Nini jumped at Ricky's sudden appearance at the door. She wonders how long he'd been there.

"Ricky, my man! Always good to see you bud."

"Why're you bothering my secretary during work hours Caswell?"

EJ held his hands up in surrender. "Don't mind me. I was just seeing my way out since I've already said what I needed to. You have a good day pal, and Nina I'll see you later."

EJ winks at her while he pats Ricky on the back before getting in the elevator. Ricky waits until the sliding doors are shut before looking back at Nini.

"What did he come up here for?"

"Oh, it was nothing."

"Really? So giving you flowers is nothing?"

"Okay, so it wasn't _nothing_."

"So there's something?"

"Yeah, there might be something."

"And what exactly was this something that was oh so important that he just couldn't wait until your lunch break?"

She sighs. "He asked me on a date."

"Oh."

"Yeah..."

An awkward silence goes by as they both try not to look at one another.

He fiddles with his fingers. "Are you gonna go?"

"Um yeah, I think so."

"Well," He tries not to let his emotions show but fails miserably. "Have fun on your little date." He says bitterly.

She rest her hands on her hips. "You know what? I will."

He scoffs. "Fine."

"Fine!"

"Good."

_"Great."_

He walks back to his office, and she surprisingly didn't hear from him for the rest of the day.

***

EJ ends up taking her to a fancy steakhouse the next Saturday, and she immediately regretted letting him choose where to eat. She wasn't a big fan of red meats, and this place was filled with men yelling at a football game. 

She considered asking to go somewhere else, but he looked so excited to be there that she didn't have the heart to say anything. 

If she were being honest, she wasn't crazy about standard dinner dates. She finds them bleak and occasionally uncomfortable. EJ didn't make her feel uneasy, and he most definitely was not boring. However, she couldn't find herself truly wanting to date this guy.

He was such a sweetheart though, and she can tell he genuinely wanted to get to know her better. She tried her best to connect with him. She really did, but something just wasn't clicking. He had been going on about a story of one of his crazy clients, and she found herself dozing off midway.

"Hey Nina?"

She comes back from fantasy land when she hears her name. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry if this is too forward, but I was curious if you maybe wanted to go somewhere private. You know..."

She raises a brow. "Like back at your place?"

"Exactly, of course you don't have to if you're not comfortable."

She smiles. "It's okay." She ponders whether or not she should go with him or end the night now. Maybe if she spends alone time at his place, she might find that connection she longed for.

"I'd love to go back to your place."

"Great, I'll pay for the check. Why don't you go wait in the car? I'll be there in a second."

Fifteen minutes later, they're walking into his two level penthouse that was far too huge for one man. 

"Wow, your place is insane."

"Thanks." He walks over to his kitchen and takes out a bottle of champagne. "Want some?"

"When in Rome." 

He pours her a glass, they toast, and down their drinks. When he finishes, he gives her a suggestive face. "Do you maybe wanna go upstairs?"

Nini blushed madly when she realized what he was hinting at. "Yes." 

He interlaces their hands. "Follow me."

She felt her heart beating through her chest. She hasn't been with anyone besides Ricky in months and barely remembers how normal people usually go about this.

He leads her into his bedroom. He faces her and gently gripped her waist. 

"Is it okay if I kiss you?"

She just nodded and waited for him to meet her in the middle. When their lips touch, he was very gentle about it, almost as if he was scared she'd break. She decided to try to add tongue, but he pulled back.

"Oh I don't really like tongue, sorry."

"Oh okay."

He kisses her again. This time, she tried brushing through his hair but was stopped again.

"Actually, I don't really like when people touch my hair. It takes like forever to get it to look like this."

Nini thought that was odd but didn't want to judge. 

"Got it." 

He picks her up and wraps her legs around his hips. Now this she was familiar with. He plopped down on the bed with her sitting on his lap and began planting feather light kisses along her neck.

Though she normally liked being treated delicately, she liked the opposite in bed. And this guy just wasn't rough enough. She ripped off her shirt and pushed him down on the bed. She began crawling up his body, leaving kisses on the way up his torso.

He seemed thrown off by her abrupt gesture and watched her curiously since he wasn't sure what she was gonna do next. She licked along his neck and bit lightly. He scrunched up his face as he removed her mouth.

"Gotta admit, not a fan of that."

She sighs. Geez, what did this guy like? 

He sat upright and began kissing on her neck again. Nini tried to force herself to believe this was enough for her, but the lack of action was killing her. She wanted to be completely dominated. Is that too much to ask?

She hopped off of him, crawled over his lap horzionatally, and poked her ass out for him. He stared at her like she was an advanced physics equation. 

"Not sure what you want me to do." 

"Spank me."

"What? No!"

"Don't worry; I'll like it."

"I can't. It feels...wrong."

Nini rolls her eyes. She scoots her body off of his lap. She begins getting dressed, which alerted him.

"Woah, where're you going? We just started!"

She gave him an unamused look as she grabs her shirt. "I'm going home. This isn't gonna work."

"What, the sex? We could probably figure something out."

"No, EJ it's more than the sex. I don't think this," She motions between the two of them. "Is gonna become a thing." 

"I thought we were having a good time."

"Look, you're really sweet and all, but there's just no spark. I didn't feel it during dinner, and I definitely don't feel it now. That's a sign that we won't work." 

EJ frowns but nods in understanding. "I guess I was reading this all wrong. I'm not sure how I missed the signs, but thanks for telling me the truth." 

"It's the least I could do."

"Can I at least offer you one of my driver's to take you home? It's a long walk back."

"That'd be great, thanks."

"Hey, maybe we can still be friends. You're a pretty cool person."

She nods. "Of course." 

They both grin and hug. "Let me just ring up my guy." 

When Nini gets home 20 minutes later, she couldn't help but replay the day's events in her head. She was so disappointed that she couldn't be attracted to someone like EJ. He's a picture perfect boyfriend on paper, yet he wasn't doing it for her. She always thought she wanted that, but maybe she was lying to herself all these years.

She doesn't _want_ standard dinner dates or vanilla sex with an average guy. She wants someone with a sense of adventure, spontaneity, intense pining after they kiss, and heavy desire. Someone who's exciting. Someone who keeps her on her toes. She wants...

_Oh no._

***

"You ringed for me?"

Ricky nods when he sees his secretary's head peeping through the crack of his door. 

"Yes, come in."

She walks up to him and sits in her usual seat. "Have another file for me?"

"No, I actually wanted to return something." He reaches in his pocket and holds up a diamond stud earring. "Missing this?"

She perked up when she saw her missing jewelry. It had fallen off sometime during the banquet, and she had been so distraught when she saw it disappeared.

"Oh my god, where did you find it?" She takes it and holds it dear to her heart. 

"I found it on my blazer after the ball. Must've gotten stuck after...you know."

She blushes when she understood what he was referring to. "Thank you, this means a lot to me."

"No problem."

He begins tapping on the table, which she of course was aware was a nervous tick of his.

"Is that all?"

"No." He takes a deep breath, almost as if he were preparing to accept bad news. "How was your little day with wonder boy?"

"Why're you curious?"

He shrugs. "Gotta make sure my employees aren't screwing up our chances of making a deal with his company."

He shakes his leg, which she knew meant he was fibbing. She picked up on that habit of his after the second month when he lied to EJ over the phone about why he couldn't meet for lunch.

She wasn't buying that excuse at all. "Sure."

"Will I be seeing Mr. blue eyes around? Because I need to know so I know when to hide."

"You have nothing to be concerned about."

"Yeah?" His voice was softer than usual.

"Yeah."

He nods with a very faint grin. "Alright."

She noticed he physically relaxed and smirked. "Awe were you jealous? Did you want EJ all to yourself? How cute."

He rolled his eyes & pointed to the exit. "Out."

She hops out her seat and bows. "Yes, your majesty."

She smiles as she closes the door behind her. She stared down at the earring in her hand and found her heartbeat racing just a little faster. 

Unbeknownst to her, on the other side of those red doors was a heart beating in sync with hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmfao EJ is such a himbo in this.
> 
> Woo longest chapter yet! Can you believe I was gonna make this all one long one shot a few months ago? It's already approaching 30k words and is still going.
> 
> Anyways, leave your thoughts! We're already halfway finished!


	6. Lascivious Longing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **There's quite the smut scenes in this chapter too!!**

Things were pretty relaxed recently. Well, as relaxed as a major record label can be. It's been a little over two months since the banquet, and things have been relatively calm.

The winter breeze was sweeping the city, and Christmas was just around the corner. The only shocking part about these past few weeks was that Ricky had been serene. To be honest, it kinda freaked everyone out, especially Nini.

She definitely wasn't complaining because a calm Ricky meant less stress and work for her. So whatever has been keeping him zen owns her heart forever. However, he still has her work later hours at night, but he tends to keep to himself when they're in the same room nowadays.

A normal assistant would probably like not being bothered while doing overtime work, but not Nini. To be fair, most secretaries aren't doing the devil's tango with their bosses. 

He hasn't really touched her recently, and she wondered if he had lost interest. Sure, she's caught him looking when she wears skin tight clothing, and he'll sensually rub his thumb on her inner thigh under her skirt during meetings. But it usually stopped there. Sometimes she was bold enough to touch him suggestively, but he'd just blush and fix his bulge.

If she were being truthful, she missed his touch. She didn't know how to tell him that though. There's been a few times where she wanted to bring it up, but she'd chicken out when she saw his face. 

On a colder night in late December, she had been told to stay a little longer to help him sort through some older files. She sat in her typical spot across from him as they worked in silence. 

When she finished up the last few parts of her assigned file, she placed it in the inbox. She got up from her seat, which caused him to look up at her. 

"Done?"

She nods. "Yep, finally."

"Heading home?"

"I was, but I really was feeling like hitting up a bar tonight. I feel as if some shots of bourbon would be ideal before turning in."

Her words alarmed him. "Alone? At this time of night?"

"Well yes, but the way you said it made it sound like that was an insane idea."

He looked at her as if she were stupid. "That's because it is." 

"I've done it many times before, and look..." She does a 360. "I'm still in one piece."

"Nina, a woman that looks like you shouldn't go to places like that by yourself. At least invite one of your friends." 

She lightly blushes but frames her flattered smile to a smirk. "Awe Ricky, you do care."

He playfully rolls his eyes. "Oh hush." He gets up from his seat and grabs his keys. "Let's go." 

"Us? Where are we going?" 

"I'm taking you." He slips on his jacket. "I already know you need a ride anyways since your car broke down again." 

"I was gonna take the bus."

He grimaces at the thought of her taking a bus, thinking of the various horrible things that could happen to her at this hour. "Yeah, I'm definitely taking you now." 

"But don't you have plans?"

"You and I both know the answer to that." 

She couldn't deny that. She's not even sure if Ricky does anything on the weekend. "Fine. If you're taking me, I get to choose the music."

"Nope. My car, my music."

She pulls out her phone. "Gee, I better go check the bus schedule then. Don't wanna miss the opportunity to get robbed at gunpoint by an old man at the bus stop."

He groans. "Oh my god, fine. You can play music. Just nothing too over the top." 

"I'm gonna play every cover song from Glee just because you said that." 

"Nina, I swear." 

"Relax, I'm just fucking around." She laughs and nudges his arm. "Hey." 

"Yeah?"

She smirks. "Last one to the elevator is a rotten egg."

He puffed air from his nose. "Do you seriously think that I'd-"

In a flash, she's jotting off to the elevator, leaving him in the dust. He sighed in defeat when he realized he was giving in to this childish game.

"Dammit." 

He double timed to her, but wasn't quick enough to beat her to the doors. She smiled impishly as she pressed the close door button while she watched him sprint towards her.

"Nina, don't you dare!"

She poked her tongue out at him as the doors shut. He took a moment to catch his breath when he got to the doors.

"Fucks sake." 

After ten minutes of Nini making fun of him for losing and him explaining she cheated & threatening to turn the car around, they finally arrived to the pub. Ricky absentmindedly placed his hand on her waist as they entered.

Ricky of course chose a booth in a closed off area so they didn't have to deal with rowdy drunk people. A waiter came by chewing his gum loudly. "What'll it be for you two?"

"I'll take a tray of shots of your finest bourbon please." Nini says.

"Just a margarita for me."

Nini furrows her brows at his order. "I didn't take you as the fruity drink kind of guy."

"I'm driving, so I can't get too crazy. Plus, is it so wrong for a man to enjoy the occasional margarita? I thought you'd be more progressive than this Nina. Tsk, tsk."

She kicks him under the table. "Oh fuck off."

Soon after, their drinks are placed in front of them. Nini had downed four of her shots in a row, making her a little tipsy but still functional. She rested her head on her fist as she looked at him with dazed eyes. Her mind began to wonder about the man sitting across from her. 

She realized that she doesn't really know much about Ricky outside of work. She technically could've asked Red, but she felt like it was invasive. 

At first, he just ignored her stare. After a while, he was starting to get weirded out. "Oh my god Nina, what?"

She shrugs. "Nothing."

"It's clearly something. You've been staring into my soul for the last three minutes."

"Have I? Huh, guess I got lost in thought."

"About what?"

She blushes. "I don't wanna say."

"Why's that?"

"Because I know you aren't open."

"Open about what?"

"Your life Ricky. I don't know anything about your past at all after almost a full year of knowing you. Don't you think that's weird?"

He was not expecting that to be the thing that was bothering her. "I mean, no not really. It's not like that's just some subject I'd start talking about out of the blue. Besides, it's not that interesting." 

"But I want to know!" She whines.

"Why?"

"Because well, we're kinda...buddies."

He chuckles at the title she gave them. "Buddies? Is that what you wanna call us?" 

"Sure, why not? I don't know what else to call you because you're definitely more than just my boss." 

Well, she wasn't wrong about that. "Fine, then that's what we are, buddies."

She beams. "Yeah, buddies." She sing songs, liking the way the word rolls off her tongue. 

He grins before taking a sip of his cocktail. "So _buddy,_ what exactly did you wanna know about me?" 

She taps her cheek as she thinks. She lights up when a topic came to mind. "Tell me how you met Big Red."

Ricky smiles at the memory. "We met in kindergarten. I saw him crying on the jungle gym because some kid purposely tripped him, so I kicked the kid and comforted him until he stopped crying. We've been best friends since." 

Nini makes a face of adoration. "Awe, that's so precious! I can totally see you being protective over him."

"Well he calls me his right hand man for a reason. Next question."

She curls her hair with her finger. "Ever been in a relationship?"

His face falls at the question. "Next."

She tilts her head at his odd reaction. "Why won't you answer?"

"Because I don't want to."

She pokes out her lip and tosses a lime at him. "Boo, you're lame."

"Call me all the names you want, but I'm not answering."

She grumbles, accepting that he wouldn't budge. 

"Fine, what about family?"

He sighs as he slides down in his seat and folds his arms. "Not much to say. I'm an only child, my parents divorced when I was in middle school because of my mom's infidelity, and she moved to Chicago with her side piece. Haven't spoken to her since. My dad's a chill guy though." 

Nini frowns at the mention of his mother. "I'm sorry to hear about your mom. That must have sucked." 

He shrugs nonchalantly and waves her off. "It's whatever. I've been over it for years now."

She could tell he was putting up a front despite claiming to be healed. She lays her hand on top of his. She thought he'd shy away, but he actually entangled a few of his fingers with hers.

He clears his throat in discomfort. "Anyways, any other things you wanna know? You better take advantage cuz I'm in an unusually talkative mood today." 

She takes the hint to change the subject. "Hm, am I the best secretary you've ever had? There's only one right answer by the way." 

He forms a lopsided smile. "Well aren't you full of yourself?" 

She smugly looks at him as she dramatically flipped her hair. "You know it."

He looked at her with an amused expression. "I'm sure that none of my former secretaries comes close to you."

Nini's smile spread so wide it created crinkles on the sides of her eyes. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

Both of their faces became rosy as they gazed into one another's eyes; they decide to blame it on the alcohol. 

He pulled his hand away from hers. "Um, I'm gonna go get some water. You want anything?"

"I'm good."

He just awkwardly looks at her before sliding out the booth and walking to the bar. As she takes another shot to hopefully get rid of her anxious feelings, she feels the table vibrate. She looks over and sees Ricky got a text. 

She didn't actually intend to check to see who it was, but it's not like her eyes tried to look away either. She glimpsed over at Ricky to see if he were looking. When she saw he wasn't paying her any mind, she peeked over at his home screen.

_Big Red: Hey dude. I know you don't like acknowledging it, but I'm gonna do it anyways since I do it every year against your wishes. It's basically our little tradition now. I couldn't let the day pass by without saying happy birthday to my best friend! Hope you had a good day :)_

Nini gasped at the message. She had no idea it was his birthday. Then again, how would she? But this still threw her for a loop. 

"Why do you have my phone?"

She jumped in her seat and looks up at him with a guilty face, but it quickly turned into disbelief. 

"It's your birthday?!"

She could see the visible confusion on his face. 

"What the- How did you find out?"

She held up his phone to him, and he sighed when he read the message. "Ricky, why would you not tell me it's your birthday? We could have done something else besides go to this shitty pub."

He shrugged as he slid back into his seat. "It wasn't that important to me."

She looked at him as if he had just stomped on a puppy. "Not important? The day of your birth should always be celebrated. It means you've made it another year!"

"I just never found myself to care for it. My family never celebrated birthdays, especially after the divorce. I think one time my dad got me a bottle of scotch for my 21st though, but that's about it."

"What were you planning on doing today before you joined me?"

"I was gonna go home, maybe drink a cup of wine while watching a little TV before going to bed. That's what I usually do. Red, always tries to get me to do something to celebrate it, but I always decline."

She smirks when she noticed something. "So instead of being alone, you decided to spend the last few hours of your birthday with me?"

He chokes on his water and begins blushing. She laughs at his reaction.

"You're one hell of a character Salazar-Roberts." 

She smiles from ear to ear and goofily poses. "And proud." 

He lightheartedly rolls his eyes and steals one of her shots, resulting in her retaliating by throwing sliced limes at him. He holds up a napkin as a white flag so she'd stop. 

"Well hopefully, this was better than being alone."

He faintly smiles. "It was." He says softly.

She smirks suggestively. "Maybe I can give you birthday spankings after this."

He blushes madly. "Nina!"

She laughs wholeheartedly. "I'm just kidding. Calm your tits." She lifts her shot glass up and hands him one of hers. "Cheers to you surviving another year. Hey, maybe this'll be the first of many birthday celebrations."

"Only time will tell." 

They clinked their glasses and downed their shots. She couldn't help but detect that he never rejected her previous statement about him wanting to spend his time with her. She eschewed from teasing him about it, not wanting to risk killing the energy. She made a mental note to mark his name by December 22 on her calendar when she gets home. 

***

The following Monday, Ricky enters his office a little earlier. He didn't get much rest over the weekend, so he figured he may as well take advantage of his sleeplessness by starting the day early. When he got to his desk, he was shocked to see a red velvet cupcake sitting near his desktop. He noticed that there was a handwritten note next to the pastry. He picked it up and opened it.

_Just wanted to say thanks for offering me a ride last Friday when you didn't have to. Since you did something sweet for me, I gave you something sweet in return. Hope the rest of your birthday went well. Enjoy!_

_P.S.- Sorry my handwriting is so sloppy. I wrote this right before running to get the usual morning coffees, so technically it's your fault I temporarily have the handwriting of a 1st grader. Therefore you can't judge me._

_Sincerely,_

_The best secretary ever (your words, not mine)_

He found himself actually audibly laughing at her cute little message. He doesn't remember the last time anyone has gotten a genuine chuckle out of him. He folded the note and placed it in his jacket pocket. He swiped some of the cream cheese frosting off the cupcake. 

He couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.

***

Five minutes. 

The exact time she had to leave so she wouldn't be late for her meeting with Ricky.

But this wasn't like those meetings they had in the conference room or even similar to the "special meetings" in his private office. No, this one was unique. Why is that?

Well that's because it was at his _house,_ which is why she was stressing.

She had gotten the phone call about the last minute meeting late Friday evening that it'd be happening the following day at noon. So far, she only knows it'll be the two of them and that it was about Natalie's contract. She had freaked out since she'd never been to his house before.

She had probably changed her outfit, hair, and make up five times in the past hour, yet she still wasn't satisfied with her appearance. She felt ridiculous for being cautious about her outfit when it was just him. He never even told her to dress professional; she was just being extra. 

She settles for a simple denim button down and some ripped black jeans. She didn't want to seem like she tried too hard. When she saw the time, she practically sprinted to her car. She was regretting obsessing over her looks when she got stuck in traffic for ten minutes that she could've avoided had she left sooner. 

When she pulls up in his driveway, her eyes couldn't believe the sight in front of her. His house was much larger than EJ's and more private since the brick walls around his home were tall, which is exactly what she'd expect from Ricky Bowen.

His house looked like a mini mansion with its large columns in the front and mini fountain on the lawn. It took a lot of convincing to finally ring his doorbell. She tapped her foot anxiously. She doesn't know why she's so damn nervous when it was just a stupid meeting. 

She shakes a bit when he opens the door. She sees he's wearing a white t-shirt with gray sweatpants on. (Did he really have to wear _those_ sweatpants? They always outlined his... _focus Nina_ ). She secretly patted her back for not overdressing because she definitely would've looked like an idiot.

"Hey, you're right on time. Come on in."

She never thought she'd hear those words from his mouth before. When she entered his luxurious home, she let out a louder gasp than intended. She took in her surroundings, trying to comprehend how beautiful his place was. The walls were golden and the floors were made of marble. She could see the gorgeous view from the back porch of a private pool.

She always knew he was living comfortably on his fortunes and that he was stylish, so she shouldn't have been all that surprised that his house was equally as lavish as him. 

"Ricky, holy fuck. I knew you were rich, but I didn't realize you were living like Jay Gatsby!"

He puffs air from his nose. "Well let's hope I don't have an ending like him." He motions for her to follow him. "We can do a house tour later. First, let's get this report done."

"Yes, sir."

She follows him upstairs to his home office. She noticed it was significantly smaller than the one at the label, but it was definitely not small either. She noticed that the only other seat was right beside his. Her heart began beating uncontrollably.

He plops down in his chair and looks up at her when she was still standing in front of his desk. "Come sit, I promise I won't bite."

_Her hickeys on her collarbone and neck from a few weeks ago would beg to differ._

She just awkwardly smiled and took the spot next to him. He slides Natalie's album cover in front of her. 

"I wanted you to be the first to see it since this was the first major thing you were a part of."

She beams when she sees the final product. It was exactly how she pictured it'd look with a little extra flare to it. It was gorgeous, and she felt proud for being part of this. She felt herself begin to tear up from pure joy.

He panics when he sees her reddened eyes. "Woah sorry, didn't expect that reaction."

She chuckled, shakes her head, and hugs the album against her chest. "No, these are happy tears. I just can't believe how amazing it came out."

He relaxed and smiles. "Yeah well, it wouldn't have looked as nice as it did had you not rebelled. Who knows if she would've even signed to us had it not been for your obsession of steamrolling me?"

She wipes a tear as she laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

"I _know_ it's true."

Her face became crimson. "Ricky, this is very thoughtful. Thank you."

He waves her off. "What're buddies for?"

She rolls her eyes and shoved his arm. "Well, what do we need to work on in her file? I swore we were finished with that four months ago."

"You'd be right."

That confused her. "But I thought you said-"

"Yeah, I might have over exaggerated."

"So wait, is there no work to be done?"

"Nope."

"Did you seriously have me drive 20 minutes to your house just to see this album cover that you could've easily shown me on Monday?"

"Well yeah, mostly..."

"Mostly implies there was another reason."

"Well aren't you attentive to small details."

"I'm a secretary sir; it's part of my job." She spins her chair so that she's facing him. "Why'd you _really_ invite me here Ricky?"

He breaks his eye contact with her as he shifts his leg side to side. His timid behavior was screaming he was hiding something he was embarrassed to admit aloud. 

"Awe, did _the_ Ricky Bowen invite me over because he wanted to spend time with me?" She teases. When she sees his ears turn red, she lightly slaps his arm in realization. "Holy shit, I'm right aren't I?!"

He clears his throat. "You're letting your imagination get the best of you again."

She didn't believe a word he said. "If you think I'll let you forget that you lied just to see me, then you'd be wrong."

He hops out of his seat. "Welp, I'm gonna go not be in this room." He walks to his doorframe.

"Run all you want, but I'll be damned if I don't tease you for this Bowen." 

He rolls his eyes as he tries to cover his amused smile. "Can't believe I hired a bully." 

"Hey, are you just gonna leave your guest alone in here?!"

He looked over his shoulder. "How about that house tour I promised you?"

She nods excitingly. "Sounds perfect."

She sped walked up to him. He offers her his arm to lock with, and she happily accepts it. He showed her every room in the house and his large backyard. Strolling around this mansion was like walking through a maze. Sometime during the tour, she rested her head on his arm. If he minded, he didn't say anything.

While he was talking about his pool, her stomach makes a rather loud grumbling noise. She rubs her belly; she totally forgot to eat since she was rushing to get here.

"Hungry?"

"I may have forgotten the most important meal of the day."

"Lucky for you, I happen to know the best cook in all of Salt Lake who can satisfy your hunger."

"I didn't know you had a professional chef."

He snickered. "I don't. Not like I need one. I was actually referring to myself."

She looked at him in disbelief. "You? Cooking? That sounds like two words that should never be in the same sentence."

He makes a fake offended expression. "I happen to be very good at making breakfast foods and pastries."

"I highly doubt it's better than my baking. I happen to also be a master chef."

"You're bluffing."

She smacked his arm. "Am not! I'm known as the Rachel Ray of my friend group for a reason."

"Only one way to see if that's true."

"Ricky Bowen, are you challenging me to a bake off?"

"Yes, I am. That is unless of course you're too much of a coward."

"You're so on!"

"Alright, each of us will make the dish we're the best at and compare."

"I'm fine with those terms."

They both shake each other's hands as they give each other playful scowls. He leads them to his kitchen and took out a bunch of materials for the both of them while she washes her hands.

He glanced over at her. "Ready to get your ass handed to you?"

"You'll be eating those words in the next hour Bowen, quite literally."

"May the challenge begin."

They both ran around the large kitchen, preparing their pastries to perfection. Sometimes he'd purposely place the flour on a higher shelf so she couldn't reach it, and she'd retaliate by stealing some of his icing. Exactly an hour later, both of their dishes were complete. 

Nini had baked doughnut holes while Ricky made cinnamon buns. There was a lovely aroma of baked goods in the room that made their mouths water. 

"Me first!" 

Nini placed her doughnuts in front of him with an assortment of dipping sauces. 

"If there's poison in any of these doughnuts, I want you to know that I will be haunting you."

She scoffs. "Will you shut up and taste it?"

"Alright, calm down."

He takes one of them and dips it in strawberry sauce before having a bite. He seemed stunned by the flavor. "Oh wow."

"Good?"

"I have to admit; these are probably the best homemade doughnut holes I've ever had."

She stands tall with a prideful smile. "I told you!"

"Still won't top my cinnamon buns though."

She folds her arms. "I call bullshit."

"Try them." He slides his baking sheet over to her.

She eyes them skeptically before taking a small bite out of it. Though it was only a corner, she felt like she was in heaven. She let out a low moan as she took another taste.

"So what do you think?"

"What's the secret recipe, crack? This shit is addictive!"

He laughs as he takes another doughnut. "I told you they were amazing."

"This taste like all of my hopes and dreams in one cinnamon bun."

"Does that mean I won?"

"It pains me to say it, but I gotta hand it to you. You're one hell of a baker." 

He smirks victoriously. "And you doubted me."

"Sh, enjoy your victory somewhere else. Don't want your cockiness energy wearing off on my cinnamon bun."

She took the tray and walked over to his couch. 

"Who said you were allowed to eat in my living room?"

"My legs make all my actions for me. Blame them."

"You literally passed a table and a bar, which are both made to eat at."

"Can't hear you over the pure bliss these cinnamon buns are giving me. It's made me lose all sense of reality."

He just shakes his head with a playful grin. He didn't actually mind her sitting there. He took out a bottle of rosé. 

"Want any?"

She just nodded as she continued to devour his food. He poured them both glasses as he sat rather close to her on the couch. He took a sip of his glass as he watched her eat her third cinnamon bun. He made a mental note to make another batch for next time. 

"Careful, don't want you getting sick."

"You only care cuz I'd have to call in ill Monday, and no one would answer your calls." She teases.

"Hush, that's not the only reason."

"Then what?" She sips her rosé as she awaits his answer.

He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "You just bring a certain energy to the office I guess. Also, buddies don't like seeing their buddy getting sick."

She snorts at the mention of that silly word she coined for their relationship when she was tipsy. 

"You'll never let that die, will you?"

"No, I'll beat that dead horse."

She takes a longer sip of her drink as she stared at him with a long overdue question on her mind. 

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

He gives her his undivided attention. "Sure."

She set her tray and glass on the ottoman. "Why'd you hire me? I had no references, no experience in being a secretary, and I came hella late. I was sure I bombed it. What made you say yes?"

He sighed. He was shocked it took her this long to finally ask him this. "Well, I saw potential in you. The fact that you came up to my office knowing you were late already told me you were driven. But it was when you started getting snappy with me that I knew you'd be ideal for the spot."

She gave him a puzzled look. "Wouldn't that be more of a reason to not hire me? No boss likes someone who bites back at them."

He smirks. "Exactly my point. The fact that you had the balls to be rude to me during an interview proved to me that you had what it took to make it. If you'd snap at me in an interview, then that meant you'd be willing to call me out when I'm being a dickhead or when I fuck up."

"Oh I most definitely do that."

"Oh trust me, _I know._ Matter of fact, it's impossible _not_ to hear you when you're really passionate about something. You won't stop bothering me until it's done, even if that means calling me an asshole or insulting my ideas. My former secretaries were too scared to say anything."

"So you wanted someone who wasn't afraid of speaking up to you?"

"Basically. I hate to say it, but I know in reality that I'm not always gonna make the right decisions. Sometimes my way isn't always the right one, which is why it's healthy to have someone else's opinion. I also wanted someone who was able to expect the unexpected well."

"How am I doing with that so far?"

"Far better than I thought you would to be honest. I thought maybe you'd quit after that fourth month for sure, but you stayed. And I'm happy you did."

She smiles in a twitting way. "Was one of the reasons because you were attracted to me?" She walks her fingers on his arm.

His neck turns red and makes an awkward cough. 

"That's not important."

"You dodged the question."

"Can't get anything by you."

"Bowen."

"So we're back to a last name basis?"

"Answer me."

He groaned obnoxiously loud as he roamed a hand down his face. He covered his cheeks as much as he could, knowing he'd for sure blush harder. 

"Maybe it was one of the factors..."

He could feel her eyes on him. When he peeked, he saw her smiling with rosy cheeks. He wasn't sure if it was because of this conversation or the alcohol or maybe a concoction of both.

He didn't even have to wait for her to speak to know that whatever she was gonna say next was sure to feed into his growing embarrassment. Doing what he did best, he steered the conversation to another direction.

"I also told you the wrong time for the interview to see if you'd still come up."

She makes an abnormal sound as she glared at him, but she didn't actually seem all that upset. Judging by her face, she's forgotten all about the prior topic.

"You dickhead!"

"It's part of my interview process for everyone! I told Ashlyn to act as if she didn't know."

"Why'd you wait almost a full year to tell me?!"

"It never came up! Besides, it doesn't really matter anymore since you already got the job."

She grabs one of the decorative pillows and smacks him in the face with it. She failed to realize how close his wine glass was and accidentally hit it in the process. The rosé spills all over his t-shirt and got a little on his pillow.

He jumps at the cold feeling on his chest. She gasped and slaps her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Let me get you a towel."

As she was getting up, he pulled her back down. "It's fine. I can handle it."

She assumed he'd either go get a towel or go to his room to change, but he does neither. He stands up and removes the shirt and carefully placed it on the table. She was taken aback, but that turned into pining as she stared at his bare chest. He didn't seem to notice she had been watching.

He finally looks her direction and followed her eyesight. They catch themselves staring in one another's eyes. He knew that look all too well. That was the eyes of a lustful woman who needed to be touched. The rising sexual tension was making the both of them antsy with anticipation. In a moment's notice, Nini had shot up from the couch and ran up to him.

She jumped into his arms, looping her legs around his waist. She cups his face and stared at his lips before smashing hers onto his. It doesn't take him long to react.

He slips his tongue into her and tightened his arms around her. Nini did not feel like going slow. He has been neglecting her from all of him for far too long, and she wanted to make sure she got the full experience today.

Their tongues battle between the kisses, and Nini felt herself start getting wet already. It was insane that he had such an affect on her. She whined when she feels him putting her back on the ground. She tried to hold on as long as she could until her feet touch the floor. He chuckled at her pout.

"Let's take this to my bedroom."

Her pout switched to a smile in an instant. He interlaces their fingers and both begin rushing to his room. On their way there, he would pin her against a wall to give her a quick kiss. He did it so much to the point where she wasn't sure if they'd ever make it to his bedroom.

He pinned her against his door as he sucked on her neck. She lifted her leg over his hip and pushed his groin onto hers so she could create friction. She began unbuttoning her shirt. She got excited when she could feel he was equally as aroused as her. 

"Are we ever gonna go in, or are you gonna fuck me out here?"

He doesn't answer with words. Instead he lifts her onto his hips and kicked down his door. He closed the door with his foot as he waddled to his bed. He dropped her on her back on the bed.

"Take off your jeans."

She does as told as he watched. She shook her pants off to the ground, leaving her in her top and undies. He pulls her crotch to his and just takes a moment to admire the view below him. He feels her soft skin under his shirt, noticing her heart was beating wildly in her chest when he grazed over the space between her breast.

She grabs his hand and bring it to her lips. She presses a gentle kiss on his palm before placing it on her cheek. Her adorable gesture makes his heart warm up. He hovers over her and connects their lips. She wraps her legs around him as he began grinding against her. To his surprise, she flipped them over so that she was on top.

She began slowly undoing her buttons. His hands weren't patient enough to wait for her to take it off so he cupped her bare breast from under. He was shocked but thrilled to see she hadn't bothered wearing a bra.

She finally took it off and threw her shirt to the side. She ducked down and began kissing down his abdomen. She stopped right when she got above his waist line. She pulls down his sweatpants, revealing his shaft to her. It sprung out already fully erect and ready for her to taste. 

She wrapped her hand around him and began stroking him sensually. His head went deeper into the pillow while his hand traveled down to her hair. She watched him as she licked on the base of his dick, loving the face and noise he made.

She licks from his sack to his tip before finally shoving her mouth down on him. He bends his knees and grabs both sides of her head as he slowly bucks his hips into her mouth. She hums as a response, making his leg jerk at the vibration. 

She begins bobbing her head faster, wanting to taste even more of him. His grip on her hair tightens as his toes curl. He slowly moves his hips up and down as she continued to suck him. She used her right hand to fondle his balls as she gagged on him. 

Her gesture made him hiss in pleasure. He glanced down at her and saw her lips completely coated in his juices. He wanted to bust at the sight right there, but he held back so he can enjoy her a little longer. 

Much to his dismay, she releases his shaft from her mouth with a pop. She licks what her tongue can reach around her mouth and wipes off the rest. She was about to crawl over him, but he had a mind of his own. He sits up and places her on his lap. 

He sucks her neck on her sweet spot, causing her to moan. She was taken by surprise at the sudden action, but she quickly got used to it. She began grinding her hips against his. He sucks harder as she rolled her hips on his. 

She felt herself soaking through her panties at the feeling of his erection pressing against her center. He continues to suck until he's satisfied with the hickeys he's formed across her neck. He gently grabs her chin to make her face him.

"Take off your panties. I'll be right back."

He plants a kiss on her lips before delicately removing her from his body. She watched as he walked into his closet. She was confused what he was planning but obeyed nonetheless. She discarded her panties to the floor with the rest of her clothing and waited patiently for him to come back. 

He came back completely nude with a wooden box in his hands. She raises a brow at him. "What's in there?"

He smiles as he joins her on the bed. When he opens it, she was shook by what was inside. There was black bondage ropes and a vibrator inside. Her face turns red, however the sight of the utensils aroused her since she knew what was to come. 

"Do you wanna try this?"

She nods eagerly. 

He smirks. "Turn around."

She follows his orders, feeling her heart beat louder as she overhears him remove the items from the box behind her. He grabs her wrist, placed them behind her back, and began wrapping the ropes around them. He ties it in a knot that wasn't so tight it'd cut off her circulation. 

He twist her body so that she's facing him. He can tell she was extremely turned on already just by the hungry look in her eye. He shifts his hand down her spine before pushing her down on her back. He hovers over her body as he smashes their lips together.

She so desperately wanted to run her hands through his curls to pull him closer, but the thought of him being in total control over her turned her on even more. He doesn't break the kiss as he reaches for the vibrator on the edge of the bed. 

He shifts a little to the side to make room for the sex toy. He turns it on and placed it on her clit. She moaned into his mouth. Her legs began going out of control, making him lose balance of the toy a few times. He detaches their lips and the vibrator and squeezed her thigh as a warning.

"Keep still, or do I need to tie your legs up too?"

She began fantasizing what that'd be like. She actually favored that idea, but she liked having them be free at the moment. They can try that later. She shakes her head. "I'll be good." 

He didn't believe that one bit considering her track record. "Uh huh." 

He places the toy back on her and began kissing along her neck. She tried her best to not move, but the feeling of his lips on her and the vibration was making her lose her mind. She arched her back when he turns the vibration up a notch. 

"Fuck!"

She lost all train of thought as she felt an orgasm approaching. She hadn't even noticed her legs shaking until it was too late. She feels him smirk against her neck as he switched off the vibrator seconds before she was about to finish. He rolls it to the other side of the bed. 

She let out a breathy moan and pouted. "Dammit Ricky, let me cum." 

"Oh, I plan to." 

He climbs over her and begins a trail of wet kisses from her neck, takes a brief moment to lick her breast, before making his way between her legs. He makes direct eye contact with her as he shoves two of his fingers in her. He only thrust his fingers three times before pulling out to taste her fluids. 

She expected him to put them back in, but he doesn't. Instead, he flips her onto her stomach and pressed his body on top of hers. He kissed down her spine all the way to her ass. He lightly bites her ass, making her moan into the sheets.

He sits up and lifts her hips so that she's in doggy style. He brings her hips to his and grinds against her. Her body was yearning for him to just take her already. She attempted to make his dick slip inside of her, but she should've known he wouldn't make it that easy. He always punished her for doing that; good thing she liked disobeying. 

He slaps her ass a few times, and she bit onto her pillow as she arched her back more. Her moans began to get louder with every smack, making him hard as a rock. When he decides she's learned her lesson, he firmly grabs her hips and aligns himself with her entrance.

He steadily inserted her, loving how wet she was for him. She already was dripping down her legs, and he hasn't even thrusted yet. She let out a moan at the feeling of him finally becoming one with her.

He rapidly bucks his hips into her, not wanting to take it slow. She rolled her eyes in the back of her head as he grazed her g-spot that she knew damn well he did on purpose. He learned that doggy makes him hit her cervix every time, and he loved hearing her scream his name each time he does it.

He saw that she was muffling her moans with the pillow, so he picks up his pace. The sound of skin slapping together and their sex-driven moans echoed in the large room. He ducked over her body so that his lips were near her ear. 

"Scream for me Nini."

She realized he called her by her nickname for the first time but didn't ponder on it too long since she was more focused on other things. "M-make me." She challenges.

He smirks and leaves a sloppy kiss on her shoulder. 

"Well you asked for it."

He sits back up and began spanking her in between hard thrust. Her eyes closed shut at the sensation of him hitting her spot while smacking her. She began throwing it back as he worked his magic on her, letting a few loud moans slip out.

"Scream Nina." 

He pushed her down on her stomach while he laid on top of her. He slithered his hand in between her legs and aggressively rubbed her clit the way she likes. She raised her head from the pillow, which he saw as an opportunity to suck on her neck. That seemed to be the final straw for her to conform to his demands.

"Ricky, fuck that's so good baby!" 

The term of endearment wasn't expected, but he wasn't complaining. He thinks it sounds nice coming from her lips anyways. He pipes into her as she moans erratically. He could hear the sound of their juices as their bodies collided. 

"Ricky, I want more."

"More?"

"P-please." She whimpers. 

He makes a wolfish grin. "You're so fucking greedy." 

It took everything in him to pull out of her. He rolls her on her back as he grasped the abandoned vibrator from the edge of the bed. He moves her body so that she's laying on her side. He lines up his shaft with her hole and inserts her with one swift thrust. 

He turns on the toy and puts it on her clit as he piped into her body. She let out a blissful cry at the intense feeling. He did _not_ disappoint when she asked for more. He could feel the vibration too, and it was driving him over the edge. 

He listened to her yell out random obscenities that only he was lucky enough to hear. He got to witness her heavenly face contort into expressions displaying the immense pleasure he was giving her. It was all so perfect, so captivating, so beautiful. 

_She_ was mesmerizing.

"Baby, I'm gonna cum."

He blushes at the pet name. "Right behind you."

Unsurprisingly, she ended up relieving herself first. He didn't bother turning off the vibrator, riding out her orgasm. She moaned noisily as pure delight overcame her. Only a few minutes later, he's finishing with a low grunt. He made a few lazy thrust before finally pulling out of her. 

When he regains the energy, he unties her ropes and tosses both the vibrator and ropes on the nightstand. They sat in silence as they caught their breath. 

Nini exhales and rolls over on her side to face him. "I gotta know..."

He looked over at her with scrunched up brows. "Know what?"

She rests her elbow on her pillow and put her head on her palm. "Did you already have that box, or did you buy it hoping I'd end up in your bed today?"

He smiles nervously. "Do you want some water?" He completely ignores her.

"Don't act like you didn't hear me Bowen."

"So is that a no to the water?"

She groaned when she realized he'd never tell. 

"Water sounds nice."

"I'll be right back."

He reached over and pressed a light kiss on her lips before taking the toys back to his closet. Her cheeks became rosy since he's never really kissed her so casually after sex. Maybe a teasing one or lustful, but never just for the hell of it. She grazed her fingers over her lips, already missing his pressed against hers.

He comes back with a fresh pair of boxers and two water bottles. He gets under the covers and hands her one. While she took a sip, she caught him staring at her from her side vision.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What is it?"

"I'm just thinking."

"About?"

"You."

She blushes. "What about me?"

"You said something that was a little odd."

She sets the water aside and scoots closer to him. "What'd I say?"

"You called me something, a pet name to be exact."

She had a lost expression on her face. "When?"

"While we were having sex, you called me baby twice. I was gonna ignore it, but it won't leave my mind."

Nini's ears turn red in embarrassment. She was hoping he magically didn't hear that. "I'm sorry if that made you feel weird. I swear it was a slip of the tongue."

He scoots closer to her and softly caressed her face. "Don't apologize. I actually don't mind it that much."

She grins slightly. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

They both smile, both giving bashful glances. He grabs her by the waist and pulls her to his torso. She puts her head on his chest while her hand rests over his heart. He soothingly rubbed his hand up and down her back, enjoying the feeling of her drawing patterns on his chest. 

He snuck a few glimpses of her and felt his heart beat irregularly. He wanted to relish this moment as long as he could because who knows when he'll get another chance to just be with her in an elated state like this?

"Stay."

She halts her tracing at his words. "What?"

"Stay the night."

"Really?"

He didn't blame her for that reaction. They've never spent the night with one another, especially in their homes. It was a major escalation in their already complex relationship, but he wanted nothing more than for her to cuddle with him in his arms.

"Yes, really."

She blankly looked at him, and he wasn't sure how to take that. She eventually grins and faintly nods. "I'd love to."

He lets out a sigh of relief. "Good."

She planted a kiss on his cheek before returning her head on top of his chest. They relaxed in one another's arms in comfortable silence as she resumed trailing her nimble fingers across his body.

He felt his stomach get a weird fluttery feeling he couldn't explain when he felt her draw a heart.

"Can you make more cinnamon buns in the morning?" She asks in the softest and most adorable voice he's ever heard. How could he say no to that? 

He pecks her forehead. "Sure thing."

***

Ricky and Big Red were in this meeting with the HR department. Nini had stayed in her office since she actually wasn't needed for once, and Ricky admitted he was a little tempted to find some dumb reason for her to be here so he wouldn't be so damn bored.

He knew it was bad to not pay attention when he was literally the chairman of this company, but can you blame him? HR is one of the most dreadful departments to be in. He even got the boring energy the second he got off the elevator, and now he was stuck here for the next 30 minutes and 40 seconds.

He began to wander off to the first thing that came to mind, and not shockingly Nini was the first to pop up. He felt himself smiling as he recapped their weekend together. She ended up staying until Sunday evening since neither had plans.

She was a lovely presence in his house since she naturally carried a positive energy. He was almost tempted to ask her to stay Monday, but he knew that wasn't the best idea. He had a really good time with her and hoped they could do it again soon. 

As if she knew he were thinking about her, he sees her walk past the transparent walls of the meeting room. He lit up at the sight of her, catching his friend's attention.

Ricky was hoping she'd look in, but she was stopped by some dude he didn't recognize. He was a rather handsome man in his late 20's that was roughly the same height as him. He wasn't sure what he was saying to Nini, but whatever it was made her giggle and do that cute thing she does with her hair when she's flattered.

Ricky tried to remember who this dude he hired was so he can check him out later. Big Red kicks his foot under the desk, making Ricky jump. Ricky glared at him while Red smirked knowingly.

Ricky mouthed "what" to him. Red only responded by motioning his head to the very woman he had been gawking at a few seconds ago. His face tints slightly at being caught while Red playfully wiggles his brows at him. Ricky rolls his eyes and stomps on his foot as payback from earlier.

He feels eyes on him and looks up to see Nini gazing at him. They both smile, and he didn't even register that his heartbeat picked up at the sight of her. And all thoughts of this ghastly meeting go out the window.

After the meeting, Ricky was the first to spring up from his seat and exit the room. He walked over to Nini who had remained outside. Red had watched as they whispered to each other, and he didn't miss the look in either of their eyes. Red knew that look all too well since he has that same one when he's around Ashlyn all the time.

He watched as they both smiled before Ricky rested a hand on the small of her back and guided her back to his office. He doesn't recall the last time he's ever seen Ricky that happy. Whatever they had going on was clearly good for him, and he hopes it stays that way.

***

Ricky was on a conference call whenever he gets a knock on the door. The person doesn't wait for approval to enter, which he normally would've been annoyed about until he saw it was his secretary. He motioned for her to sit at her chair.

Had he been paying attention, he would've noticed the carnal gaze she gave him as she walked in a sultry manner over to him. She kicked off her shoes and began undoing the buttons on her blouse.

He was still too focused on the meeting at hand to realize she's stripping right in front of him. When he glanced over to where she was supposed to be, he noticed she was no where to be found. 

He covered the phone. "Nina?"

He feels hands on his legs and jumps in shock. He sees his secretary on her knees with her blouse completely unbuttoned, revealing her lace push-up bra that was definitely favoring her. 

"What're you doing?" He whispers.

She just smirks as she roams her hand over his groin. She unzips his fly and pulls down his pants. He didn't have time to react before she's lowering her mouth on him. His head falls back into the chair as she blew him. He grabs her ponytail and slowly bucks his hips up. 

Ricky bit his lip as he tried to cover his moan. He stopped paying attention to the man on the phone as he watched the gorgeous woman bob her head on him. He hummed in pleasure when he feels her tongue do that trick he always liked. 

"Ricky, are you okay? You sound like you're out of breath." The person on the line says.

"Oh uh yeah, I'm good. Actually, can we continue this later? My secretary just came in with an urgent matter that needs to be handled immediately."

"Sure, just call me when you're available."

"Will do."

Ricky quickly hung up the phone and shoved himself further into her throat. She moaned on his dick as she deepthroated him. 

"Fucking hell."

He felt himself edging as she sped up her rhythm. Five minutes later, he's cumming down her throat with a pitchy moan. She continues to suck after his peak to ensure there's no more juices left.

She wipes her lips when she takes her mouth off. She crawls up onto his lap, taking a seat on his leg. She kisses his neck as he tries to come down from his high. 

"That was very risky Nina."

"You liked it." She says in between kisses on his neck.

His hands travelled down to her ass, grazing over it lightly. "You've been naughty. Maybe you're in need of a punishment."

She smiles as she stood up. She pulled up her skirt and bent over the desk. She glanced over her shoulder. "I'm ready for my punishment sir."

He smirks at the scene in front of him, feeling himself harden again. He takes off his tie and wraps it around her wrist. He pulls out a ball gag he has reserved for moments like this from his drawer dedicated to their "special meetings."

He placed the gag around her mouth and slithered his finger into her panties. She was already soaking as expected, making him feel cocky that he had such an affect on her. 

"This'll be a while." He says as he smacks her ass.

***

Kourtney and Gina had been onto Nini for months now. She's been dozing off more than usual and doesn't like to look at men with them during girl's nights at the bar. They both knew that something was clearly up, but they didn't really have evidence. That is until Nini accidentally slips up.

Nini and Kourtney had been watching _The Proposal_ on a rainy Thursday with a large bag of caramel popcorn in between them. Kourtney had noticed Nini had been nervously shaking her leg as the couple on screen got closer with one another.

"Hey Kourt?"

"Hm?"

Nini blushes as she looks down at her legs. "What do you think about forbidden relationships?"

That definitely caught her attention. Kourtney paused the movie to avoid being distracted.

"Honestly, it all depends on why it's forbidden." 

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if it's forbidden because you both know it'll damage your reputation or other relationships, then maybe you shouldn't pursue it. Unless of course you don't care about any of that stuff." 

Nini looped her hair around her fingers as she nodded. "What if it's someone that you're not sure where exactly your relationship stands?"

"Ask them."

"I don't know how to go about saying that."

"Nothing beats a failure like a try, right?" 

"It would be a _big_ failure if they don't react well."

"Then it's not meant to be, and you move on to the next person." 

She sighs and hugged her legs to her chest. "I wish it were that simple." 

Kourtney raises a brow. "Nini, what's really going on?"

Nini internally debated on whether or not she should tell Kourtney. She has no idea how she was going to react, especially since she kept this a secret for so long. But the secret was eventually going to come to light, so it's best if it came from her lips now.

"I've been sleeping with someone."

Kourtney smiles victoriously. "I knew it! Gina and I had an inkling for a while now! Who's the guy?"

"Well, it's not just some ordinary guy..."

"What do you mean?"

Nini takes a deep breath. "It's Ricky."

Kourtney goes silent for a full minute, which made Nini anxious. All of a sudden, Kourtney nudges her arm rather harshly. 

Nini winced and rubbed her arm. "Ow, what was that for?" 

"For not telling me you were sleeping with your fucking boss! How could you not tell me after the first time?!"

"I didn't think it was something I should bring up!"

"Well it is! How long have y'all been seeing each other?"

Nini blocks her arm knowing another nudge could come when she answers. "A year."

"A year?!" She picks up the popcorn and places it in her lap. "You don't get any for keeping a secret like that from me for that long." 

"Kourt, I'm sorry. Don't be mad at me. I just knew it was a really scandalous thing to do, and I thought that maybe you and Gina would see me as some opportunist or whore or something."

Kourtney's face softens. She put her hand on Nini's shoulder. "Neens, I'm not mad at you for sleeping with your boss."

Nini furrows her brows. "You're not?"

Kourtney chuckles and shakes her head. "No, I'm upset because you thought Gina and I would jump to conclusions and judge you. We'd never shame you for this because we know you have a pure heart. Also, it kinda stings that you held a secret from us that long since we tell each other everything." 

Nini was relieved at her words. "I can understand that. I'd probably be upset if either of you did the same to me. But I wasn't sure if he'd want anyone else to know, so I kept it to myself."

"It's okay." They give each other bear hugs. "So you and Ricky huh?"

"Yeah, I'm shocked too." 

"You don't know where you stand with him? Have you not had that convo at all?"

The closest they got to a title for their relationship was “buddies,” but she didn’t really count that since it still didn’t feel right. Nini shakes her head. "Nope, and now I'm not sure what to do now."

"Well, what do you want the relationship to be?"

"I haven't really thought about it." 

"How about you start by explaining what he makes you feel?"

Nini begins to think about her and Ricky's bizarre timeline. She thinks about how much they've grown since they've met. She thinks of how they've come so close every passing minute, and all the inside jokes they have. She remembers how he always makes her feel so good after a session and how she gets this weird feeling in her gut when he meets her eye.

Nini didn't even comprehend that she was smiling and had flushed cheeks, but Kourtney sure did. "Well, I obviously know I'm attracted to him." Nini hugs the decorative pillow as she thinks about Ricky. 

"But it's more than that. He makes me feel like no other man has. I think he appears in my mind at least once every hour. I always love when he makes this cute little grin when he's amused with me. I like when I catch him staring longingly at me, especially since he doesn't know that I'm aware he does it. I love that he lives life impulsively; it makes every day an adventure. I love being around him. I just love-" 

Nini's eyes widened in horror as she slapped her hand over her mouth. No, it can't be. Surely she's not. How could she let this happen? 

"Neens..."

Nini lifts a finger to shush her. " _Don't._ Don't say a word." 

"I'm gonna head to my room, so you can take this realization in. Try to get some sleep tonight."

Kourtney gives her a pat on the back before retiring to bed, leaving Nini with her thoughts. 

Nini lays on her side on the couch as she let her feelings sink in. 

_She was so fucked._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder how that guy who bit my ass is doing now.
> 
> Anyways, sorry for the late update! This chapter is 10k+ words, so that's partially why it took so long! Let me know your thoughts!


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